Economic performance of exotic dairy cattle under smallholder conditions in the marginal zones of Kenya using three analytical approaches

Smallholder exotic dairy cattle have been adopted in the dry marginal zones of Kenya from the high potential areas over the last two decades contrary to the opinion of experts. The objective of this study therefore was to evaluate the economic performance of this dairy establishment in the marginal zones. Three approaches were used for the evaluation: the stochastic cost frontier to determine inefficiencies and the causative institutional and socio-economic factors; cost-factor demand systems; and the supply response analyses to determine the elasticity estimates of policy variables. The results from these approaches are supplementary and seem to support the need for government interventions in institutional and socio-economic factors that have a high public good component in order to expand dairy establishment in the marginal zones.Marginal zones, stochastic frontier, systems analysis, institutional and socio-economic factors, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Vertical Integration in Produce Markets: A Colorado Cooperative’s Strategic Response to Change

An evolving produce industry has placed vegetable growers in northern Colorado at a competitive disadvantage. The Colorado producers’ strategic response is to form a value-added, cold storage processing cooperative in the hopes of establishing a better position for marketing their vegetables on a year-round basis. This case study discusses the results of both a market demand and processing feasibility study conducted for these vegetable growers.cooperative, feasibility study, vegetable processing plant, Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,

Dependence of CMI Growth Rates on Electron Velocity Distributions and Perturbation by Solitary Waves

We calculate growth rates and corresponding gains for RX and LO mode radiation associated with the cyclotron maser instability for parameterized horseshoe electron velocity distributions. The velocity distribution function was modeled to closely fit the electron distribution functions observed in the auroral cavity. We systematically varied the model parameters as well as the propagation direction to study the dependence of growth rates on model parameters. The growth rate depends strongly on loss cone opening angle, which must be less than $90^{o}$ for significant CMI growth. The growth rate is sharply peaked for perpendicular radiation ($k_{\parallel} = 0$), with a full-width at half-maximum $1.7^{o}$, in good agreement with observed k-vector orientations and numerical simulations. The fractional bandwidth varied between 10$^{-4}$ and 10$^{-2}$, depending most strongly on propagation direction. This range encompasses nearly all observed fractional AKR burst bandwidths. We find excellent agreement between the computed RX mode emergent intensities and observed AKR intensities assuming convective growth length $L_c\approx$20-40 km and group speed 0.15$c$. The only computed LO mode growth rates compatible observed LO mode radiation levels occurred for number densities more than 100 times the average energetic electron densities measured in auroral cavities. This implies that LO mode radiation is not produced directly by the CMI mechanism but more likely results from mode conversion of RX mode radiation. We find that perturbation of the model velocity distribution by large ion solitary waves (ion holes) can enhance the growth rate by a factor of 2-4. This will result in a gain enhancement more than 40 dB depending on the convective growth length within the structure. Similar enhancements may be caused by EMIC waves.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures. J. Geophys. Res. 2007 (accepted

The Evolution of Poverty During the Crisis in Indonesia

The economic crisis caused a clear deterioration in the welfare of the Indonesian people. in this paper, we examine the appropriate method to compare the change in poverty rates over time. we then piece together a consistent series of estimates of poverty rates during the crisis from various sources, covering a period from february 1996 to february 2002. the reconciliation of these various estimates paints a very reasonable picture and neatly tracks events. the poverty rate increased from the lowest point of around 15 percent at the onset of the crisis in the mid of 1997 to the highest point of around 33 percent nearing the end of 1998. this maximum increase in poverty rate during the crisis of 18 percentage points implies that around 36 million additional people were pushed into absolute poverty due to the crisis. after the peak point, the poverty rate started to decline again and reached the pre-crisis level of around 15 percents at the end of 1999, implying the lost time in poverty reduction due to the crisis was around two and a half years. however, the poverty rate after this point appears to have fluctuated. during 2001 until early 2002, poverty was on the rise again. keywords: poverty, crisis, welfare, measurement, Indonesi