Sustainable Cotton Production Through Skill Development among Farmers: Evidence from Khairpur District of Sindh, Pakistan.

This study on farmers’ training in environment-friendly production practices for cotton crop was conducted in the Khairpur District of Sindh province. Data used in this study comprises baseline and post- IPM Farmer Field School (FFS) impact surveys conducted during 2001 and 2003 respectively. The programme impacts were estimated on gross margins and changes in farmers’ attitude towards environment and biodiversity. The effect of training on social recognition of farmers, their experimentation abilities, and decision-making skills were also examined. Beside single difference comparisons of change in production practices between trained and non-trained farmers, the difference in difference (DD) method was also used for comparisons among FFS farmers, exposed farmers, and unexposed farmers from controlled villages. The stochastic production frontier model incorporating inefficiency effects is also estimated to analyse the impact of farmers’ training (through FFS) on productivity and efficiency at cotton farms in the area under study. The results show that better cotton yield and reduction in the cost of pesticides and fertiliser inputs enabled FFS farmers to fetch significantly higher gross margins (US$391/ha) than non-FFS (US$ 151/ha) and Control farms (US$ 25/ha). The total application of pesticide chemicals was largely reduced (44 percent) on FFS farms. The cost of inefficiency at FFS farms was lower (23.71 percent) as compared to those on non-FFS farms (30.50 percent), which implies that FFS farmers were able to maintain a higher level of technical efficiency. It is concluded that the FFS approach is not only cost efficient but also improves farm-level technical efficiency. Information generated through Agro-ecosystem analysis on pest and predator dynamics helps farmers to understand pest-predator interaction to allow nature to work with fewer or most appropriate interventions. A wellplanned technical back-up support mechanism is recommended to be evolved through integrating the research system into farmer-led experimentation. The programme achievements show that the FFS approach in Pakistan has furthered from only crop management to systems management and community

Sustainable Cotton Production through Skill Development among Farmers: Evidence from Khairpur District of Sindh, Pakistan

This study on farmers’ training in environment friendly production practices for cotton crop was conducted in the Khairpur district of Sindh province. Data used in this study comprises baseline and post IPM Farmer Field School (FFS) impact surveys conducted during 2001 and 2003 respectively. The programme impacts were estimated on gross margins and changes in farmers’ attitude towards environment and biodiversity. The effect of training on social recognition of farmers, their experimentations abilities, and decision making skills were also examined. Beside single difference comparisons of change in production practices between trained and non-trained farmers, the difference in difference (DD) method was also used for comparisons among FFS farmers, exposed farmers and un-exposed farmers from control villages. The stochastic production frontier model incorporating inefficiency effects is also estimated to analyze the impact of farmers’ training (through FFS) on productivity and efficiency at cotton farms in the study area. Results show better cotton yield and reduction in cost of pesticides and fertilizer inputs enabled FFS farmers to fetch significantly higher gross margins (US$391/ha) than non-FFS (US$ 151/ha) and Control farms (US$ 25/ha). The total application of pesticide chemicals was largely reduced (44%) on FFS farms. The cost of inefficiency at FFS farms was lower (23.71%) as compared to those on non-FFS farms (30.50%) which implies that FFS farmers were able to maintain higher level of technical efficiency. It is concluded that the FFS approach is not only cost efficient but also improves farm level technical efficiency. Information generated through Agro-ecosystem analysis on pest and predator dynamics helps farmers to understand pest-predator interaction to allow nature to work with lesser or most appropriate interventions. A well-planned technical backup support mechanism is recommended to be evolved through integrating research system into farmer-led experimentation. The Programme achievements show that FFS approach in Pakistan has furthered from only crop management to systems management and community development approach and should be supported further to enter into mass scale expansion state.Cotton Production; Skill Development; Production Frontier; Efficiency; Pakistan

Application of Multiple Criteria Decision Models for Oilseed Crops in Pakistan’s Punjab

Pakistan is deficient in major food products. Self-sufficiency in food has virtually always been a major priority, because imports of wheat, edible oil, sugar, pulses and milk products put a massive burden on the balance of payments for the country. The increase in the production of oilseed has been a priority goal of the agricultural development policy in Pakistan. The oilseed crops have been validated as alternative crops on several target locations of different agro-ecological zones [PARC (1990)]; but the success of this validation work in terms of their dissemination is very limited. The possibility of including these crops in well established systems needed to be well conceived. The selection of farming systems, which have the potential to adopt such crops, is a prerequisite to investigate the problems and prospects of oilseed crops. The emphasis of the study is, therefore, on the identification of typical farm situations where the oilseed crops can be evaluated for their potential inclusion in the cropping plans. A real decision-making environment in agriculture involves several objectives along with their explicit targets.

Employee Empowerment in Banking Sector: Comparison Between Private and Public Banks Operating in Pakistan

This study is about a comparison of employee empowerment between public sector and private sector banks operating in Pakistan. The study attempted and addressed three research questions: what the degree of employee empowerment in the private sector banks is; what the degree of employee empowerment in public sector banks is; and whether employees in the private sector banks have more empowerment in terms of power, knowledge, information and rewards compared with the empowerment of employees in the public sector banks. In relation to these research questions four hypotheses were formulated and tested. The study was based on a questionnaire survey covering a sample of 100 employees (50 from the public sector and 50 from the private sector banks) from ten banking institutions (5 public and 5 private sector banks). The results show that private sector banks employees are given significantly more power in making decision, more opportunities for acquiring and utilizing knowledge to understand and contribute to organization performance; more information regarding to organization performance and activities; and more rewards based on the organizational performance than the public sector banks. The results may be of assistance to enhance employee empowerment especially in the public sector banks

Exports-led growth hypothesis in Pakistan: further evidence

The study considers the exports-led growth hypothesis using quarterly data over the period 1990-2008 in case of Pakistan. For this purpose, Ng-Perron unit root test, ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration and error correction method (ECM) for short run dynamics have been applied. Our results indicate that exports are positively correlated with economic growth confirming the validity of exports-led growth hypothesis. Exchange rate depreciation decreases and real capital stock improves economic growth.Exports, Economic Growth, ARDL Approach

Web Based Application: An Online Management System for the Student Exchange Program in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

The document discussed about the Final Year Project titled Web Based Application: An Online Management System for the Student Exchange Program in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). The objectives of this project is to create a functional system using a web based technology to automate an obsolete process in data management, develop an efficiency in handling data and allow ease of access for to the system. The stakeholder of the project is Center of Student Internship Mobility and Adjunct Lectureship (CSIMAL) department in UTP. The problem that the department currently facing is the mobility program, student exchange program where application for the program is paper based application. The system that has been developed is to convert the manual paper based application that is currently used by CSIMAL to an automated system by creating a functional system by using a web based system, mainly HTML and PHP. The methodology that has been used for the project is the waterfall model, requirement, design, implementation, verification and maintenance. The use of waterfall model is suitable in developing a web based application, where each iteration shows the progress for the project. The outcome of the project is a functional web based system called Mobility Center, to cater for the student exchange program application for CSIMAL

Poverty and Its Alleviation: The Case of Pakistan

This chapter aims to look at the current status of poverty and existing social policies in Pakistan. Poverty is one of the concerns for the governments of almost all countries including Pakistan. There is a continuous research on the policy measurements by national and international organizations in Pakistan, which demonstrated the decline in poverty. The government has launched many social policies in the past three decades to help the nation in reducing the poverty. Apart from government, many national and international organizations have also contributed a lot in the effort of reducing the poverty. However, there is very little research available on the effectiveness of these social policies, and on the need of social policy areas in particular. Disparity among the urban and rural population is another important factor, which has been discussed in almost every research on poverty. Still, very few social policies in Pakistan are focusing on rural population. Therefore, the issue of social policy needs fresh exploration in the country, which is necessary to make new social policies that can benefit all citizens