Revenue Insurance and Chemical Input Use Rates

Using farm level data and a simultaneous probit model we evaluate the input use and environmental effects of revenue insurance. A priori, the moral hazard effect on input use is indeterminate and this study empirically assesses the input use impact of the increasingly popular, and federally subsidized, risk management instrument of revenue insurance. We conclude that the moral hazard effect of federally subsidized revenue insurance products induces U.S. wheat farmers to increase expenditures on pesticides and reduce expenditures on fertilizers.Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Precision farming technology, adoption decisions and productivity of vegetables in resource-poor environments

‘Precision Farming’ or ‘Precision Agriculture’ aims at increasing productivity, decreasing production costs and minimizing the environmental impact of farming. In this context, the present study has been undertaken to understand the impact of precision farming on resource-poor regions and underprivileged farmers. Specifically, the study has looked into productivity, income, employment, and adoption behaviour of technology in agriculture. The study, conducted in the Dharmapuri district, has collected data on precision and non-precision farmings through the interview schedule during the year 2007. Sources of the productivity difference between the precision and conventional farmings have been identified by decomposing the productivity change. Financial impact of adoption has been studied through a two-stage econometric model. The first stage of the model consists of an adoption decision model that describes the factors which influence the likelihood of adopting precision farming. Results of first stage have provided input for the second stage of the model, which has been used to estimate the impact of precision farming on farm financial performance. The study has revealed that adoption of precision farming has led to 80 per cent increase in yield in tomato and 34 per cent in brinjal production. Increase in gross margin has been found as 165 and 67 per cent, respectively in tomato and brinjal farming. The contribution of technology for higher yield in precision farming has been 33.71 per cent and 20.48 per cent, respectively in tomato and brinjal production. The elasticity of 0.39 for the adoption in tomato and 0.28 in brinjal has indicated that as the probability of adoption increases by 10 per cent, net return increases by 39 per cent and 28 per cent in tomato and brinjal cultivation. Lack of finance and credit facilities have been identified as the major constrains in nonadoption of precision farming. The study has suggested that providing of subsidies for water-soluble fertilizers and pump-sets will increase adoption of precision farming.Crop Production/Industries,

Controlled inter-state switching between quantized conductance states in resistive devices for multilevel memory

A detailed understanding of quantization conductance (QC), their correlation with resistive switching phenomena and controlled manipulation of quantized states is crucial for realizing atomic-scale multilevel memory elements. Here, we demonstrate highly stable and reproducible quantized conductance states (QC-states) in Al/Niobium oxide/Pt resistive switching devices. Three levels of control over the QC-states, required for multilevel quantized state memories, like, switching ON to different quantized states, switching OFF from quantized states, and controlled inter-state switching among one QC states to another has been demonstrated by imposing limiting conditions of stop-voltage and current compliance. The well defined multiple QC-states along with a working principle for switching among various states show promise for implementation of multilevel memory devices

Indian Agriculture: Managing Growth with Equity

International Development, Q13, Q17, Q18,

Comparison of post-Newtonian templates for extreme mass ratio inspirals

Extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), the inspirals of compact objects into supermassive black holes, are important gravitational wave sources for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We study the performance of various post-Newtonian (PN) template families relative to the high precision numerical waveforms in the context of EMRI parameter estimation with LISA. Expressions for the time domain waveforms TaylorT1, TaylorT2, TaylorT3, TaylorT4 and TaylorEt are derived up to 22PN order, i.e $\mathcal{O}(v^{44})$ ($v$ is the characteristic velocity of the binary) beyond the Newtonian term, for a test particle in a circular orbit around a Schwarzschild black hole. The phase difference between the above 22PN waveform families and numerical waveforms are evaluated during two-year inspirals for two prototypical EMRI systems with mass ratios $10^{-4}$ and $10^{-5}$. We find that the dephases (in radians) for TaylorT1 and TaylorT2, respectively, are about $10^{-9}$ ($10^{-2}$) and $10^{-9}$ ($10^{-3}$) for mass ratio $10^{-4}$ ($10^{-5}$). This suggests that using 22PN TaylorT1 or TaylorT2 waveforms for parameter estimation of EMRIs will result in accuracies comparable to numerical waveform accuracy for most of the LISA parameter space. On the other hand, from the dephase results, we find that TaylorT3, TaylorT4 and TaylorEt fare relatively poorly as one approaches the last stable orbit. This implies that, as for comparable mass binaries using the 3.5PN phase of waveforms, the 22PN TaylorT3 and TaylorEt approximants do not perform well enough for the EMRIs. The reason underlying the poor performance of TaylorT3, TaylorT4 and TaylorEt relative to TaylorT1 and TaylorT2 is finally examined.Comment: 10 page