Application of Internal Control Systems in Organic Export Companies: Two Case Studies from Uganda

The organic agricultural sector of Uganda is considered the most developed in Africa with a total of 296,203 ha organic certified land and the most certified organic producers worldwide (206,800), 90% of whom are small scale farmers. They are certified organic under contract production by export and processing companies, using an Internal Control System (ICS) as a group certification scheme defined by IFOAM (2004). The ICS is a viable and well accepted tool to certify small scale producers in developing countries all over the world. In Uganda however, certification difficulties are stated among the main constraints for the organic sector development. Therefore, a qualitative study was conducted from June to August 2008 that aimed at better understanding the organisational context in which the ICS is implemented and at outlining factors for improving ICS performance. Overall, 34 expert interviews after MEUSER & NAGEL (1991) were conducted with two small- to medium-sized organic export and processing companies and their contracted farmers in two districts of central Uganda. Data analysis was carried out according to RITCHIE & LEWIS (2003). Relevant areas influencing ICS implementation were identified as company management, farmers’ production, farmers’ group structures, external consultation and ICS requirements. Contracted organic producers produce quality organic products with a positive environmental effect and comply with the organic regulations. Nevertheless, the results indicate varied constraints in the situation of the contract farming, e.g. the focus on only the export crops, unsatisfactory amounts of purchases, and an increased need for controlling farmers challenging the companies’ working capacities. Developing a good ICS staff structure is hampered by inapplicable consultation and management resulting in fluctuation and conflict of interest. Although the ICS is meant to involve producers, the companies studied bear all the ICS-responsibilities. Sharing responsibilities with producers is a promising new strategy. It is complicated by a lack of trust between the companies and farmers. Farmers’ knowledge on organic farming practices needs to be developed, additional marketing options provided and farmers’ group structures strengthened. Possibilities for improving the ICS concept are in the areas of regulating control by inspectors and farmers, controlling crop purchases, adapting yield estimation and clarifying multiple registration rules. The results obtained from the two companies hint towards opportunities and constraints for improving certification of small scale farmers in developing countries

Truncated unity functional renormalization group for multiband systems with spin-orbit coupling

Although the functional renormalization group (fRG) is by now a well-established method for investigating correlated electron systems, it is still undergoing significant technical and conceptual improvements. In particular, the motivation to optimally exploit the parallelism of modern computing platforms has recently led to the development of the "truncated-unity" functional renormalization group (TU-fRG). Here, we review this fRG variant, and we provide its extension to multiband systems with spin-orbit coupling. Furthermore, we discuss some aspects of the implementation and outline opportunities and challenges ahead for predicting the ground-state ordering and emergent energy scales for a wide class of quantum materials.Comment: consistent with published version in Frontiers in Physics (2018

Schutz der Ostsee durch Umstellung auf ökologisch kreislauforientierte Landwirtschaft: Praxisleitfäden und Software-Tools als Umstellungshilfe

The ecological status of the Baltic Sea is endangered. The high nutrient surplus from intensive agriculture is the main reason for the pollution. In a joint project with all countries around the Baltic Sea, the EU funded project BERAS Implementation (Baltic Ecological Recycling Agriculture and Society) supports the conversion to ecological recycling agriculture (ERA) to ensure a sustainable protection of the Baltic Sea. The project aims to stimulate exchange of knowledge and experiences across countries, to build a network of experts including stakeholders from science, advisory services, ministries, and the food sector and to enhance the demand for organic products. Practical guidelines and software-tools were developed to support farmers in the conversion process to ERA farming. These materials provide guidelines for sustainable production of crops and livestock, farm economics and marketing, and farm management tools for crop rotation planning and on-farm nutrient management

Ground state phase diagram of the half-filled bilayer Hubbard model

Employing a combination of functional renormalization group calculations and projective determinantal quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we examine the Hubbard model on the square lattice bilayer at half filling. From this combined analysis, we obtain a comprehensive account on the ground state phase diagram with respect to the extent of the system's metallic and (antiferromagnetically ordered) Mott-insulating as well as band-insulating regions. By means of an unbiased functional renormalization group approach, we exhibit the antiferromagnetic Mott-insulating state as the relevant instability of the free metallic state, induced by any weak finite onsite repulsion. Upon performing a careful analysis of the quantum Monte Carlo data, we resolve the difficulty of identifying this antiferromagnetic ground state for finite interlayer hopping in the weak-coupling regime, where nonmonotonous finite-size corrections are shown to relate to the two-sheeted Fermi surface structure of the metallic phase. On the other hand, quantum Monte Carlo simulations are well suited to identify the transition between the Mott-insulating phase and the band insulator in the intermediate-to-strong coupling regime. Here, we compare our numerical findings to indications for the transition region obtained from the functional renormalization group procedure.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figure

Potenziale des Sojabohnenanbaus in Nord-Ostdeutschland: Einfluss von Beregnung und Sojasorte auf Ertrag, N2-Fixierung und Vorfruchtwirkung

Sojabohnen sind in weiten Teilen Europas eine Körnerleguminose mit großem ökonomischen Potential. Sojabohnen erzielen unter warmen und ausreichend feuchten Bedingungen relativ hohe Erträge und sind so eine interessante Alternative zu anderen Körnerleguminosen. Unter weniger optimalen Bedingungen, wie sie mit geringen Niederschlägen und sandigen Böden in weiten Teilen Nord-Ostdeutschlands vorliegen, wurden bisher nur unzureichende Untersuchungen zum Potenzial der Sojabohnen durchgeführt. Die Ziele dieser Studie sind daher, (i) standortangepasste Sojasorten zu identifizieren, (ii) den Einfluss von Beregnung auf Ertrag und N2-Fixierung von Sojabohnen zu quantifizieren, (iii) einen Ertragsvergleich zwischen Soja und Blauer Süßlupine durchzuführen und (iv) den Vorfruchtwert von Soja im Vergleich zur Blauen Lupine und Buchweizen zu untersuchen

20 Jahre Modellbetrieb für Ökolandbau in Müncheberg. Teil 2: Wie ertragslabil sind Körnerleguminosen im Vergleich zu Getreide und Mais?

Auf dem Modellbetrieb für Ökolandbau in Müncheberg wurden von 1993 bis 2013 Feldversuche zur Ermittlung der Ertragsstabilität von zwei Körnerleguminosen (Schmalblättrige Lupine und Futtererbse), Wintergetreide (Roggen und Weizen), Hafer und Silomais durchgeführt. Zwei orthogonale Datensätze wurden genutzt um die temporären Ertragsschwankungen der Einzelkulturen zu vergleichen. Beide Körnerleguminosen zeigten die geringste Ertragsstabilität von allen untersuchten Kulturen. Dies war sowohl für varianzbasierte als auch für regressionsbasierte Stabilitätsparameter der Fall. Gründe für die geringe Ertragsstabilität sind unzureichend bekannt. Es müssen Strategien für das Management entwickelt werden, um mit den großen Schwankungen umzugehen

20 Jahre Modellbetrieb für Ökolandbau in Müncheberg. Teil 1: Entwicklung von Humus- und Nährstoffgehalten

Acht Felder der Versuchsstation des ZALF in Müncheberg in Nordostdeutschland wurden 1993 als Modellbetrieb mit einer Leguminosen-betonten Fruchtfolge auf Ökologischen Landbau umgestellt. Je Feld wurde 1995 ein Monitoringversuch mit je 5 Ernte- bzw. Beprobungsparzellen angelegt. Neben Ernteerhebungen erfolgte eine jährliche Krumenbeprobung zur Untersuchung der Entwicklung der Gehalte an organischem Kohlenstoff (Corg) und Stickstoff (Norg) sowie der P- und K-Verfügbarkeit. Eine deutliche Zunahme der Corg-Gehalte zeigte sich nur auf den Flächen mit Texturklasse Sand. Dagegen stiegen die Norg-Gehalte auch auf den besseren Böden, allerdings in geringerem Maße, an. Die P-Verfügbarkeit pegelte sich nach einem anfänglichen Rückgang auf Werte der Versorgungsstufe C ein. Die Kalium-Verfügbarkeit ist weiter rückläufig, so dass sich zur Vermeidung von Ertragseinbußen ein bessere Rezyklierung bzw. Düngung zukünftig als notwendig erweisen wird

Poor farmers - poor yields: socio-economic, soil fertility and crop management indicators affecting climbing bean productivity in northern Rwanda

Climbing bean is the key staple legume crop in the highlands of East and Central Africa. We assessed the impact of interactions between soil fertility characteristics, crop management and socio-economic factors, such as household resource endowment and gender of the farmer, on climbing bean productivity and yield responses to basal P fertiliser in northern Rwanda. Through a combination of detailed characterisations of 12 farms and on-farm demonstration trials at 110 sites, we evaluated variability in grain yields and responses to fertiliser. Grain yields varied between 0.14 and 6.9 t ha−1 with an overall average of 1.69 t ha−1. Household resource endowment and gender of the farmer was strongly associated with climbing bean yield, even though these were partly confounded with Sector. Poorer households and women farmers achieved lower yields than wealthier households and male farmers. Household resource endowment and gender were likely to act as proxies for a range of agronomic and crop management factors that determine crop productivity, such as soil fertility, current and past access to organic manure and mineral fertiliser, access to sufficient quality staking material, ability to conduct crop management operation on time, but we found evidence for only some of these relationships. Poorer households and female farmers grew beans on soils with poorer soil fertility. Moreover, poorer households had a lower density of stakes, while stake density was strongly correlated with yield. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser application led to a substantial increase in the average grain yield (0.66 t ha−1), but a large variability in responses implied that its use would be economically worthwhile for roughly half of the farmers. For the sake of targeting agricultural innovations to those households that are most likely to adopt, the Ubudehe household typology – a Rwandan government system of wealth categorisation – could be a useful and easily available tool to structure rural households within regions of Rwanda that are relatively uniform in agro-ecology

Rapid testing leads to the underestimation of the scrapie prevalence in an affected sheep and goat flock

To obtain a more detailed understanding of the prevalence of classical scrapie infections in a heavily affected German sheep flock (composed of 603 sheep and 6 goats), we analysed 169 sheep and 6 goats that carried the genotypes susceptible to the disease and that were therefore culled following discovery of the index case. The initial tests were performed using the Biorad TeSeE ELISA and reactive results were verified by official confirmatory methods (OIE-immunoblot and/or immunohistochemistry (IHC)) to demonstrate the deposition of scrapie-associated PrPSc in the brain stem (obex). This approach led to the discovery of 40 additional subclinically scrapie-infected sheep. Furthermore, peripheral lymphatic and nervous tissue samples of the 129 sheep and 6 goats with a negative CNS result were examined by IHC in order to identify any preclinical infections which had not already spread to the central nervous system (CNS). Using this approach we found 13 additional sheep with PrPSc depositions in the gut-associated lymph nodes (GALT) as well as in the enteric nervous system. Moreover, in most of these cases PrPSc was also deposited in the spleen and in the retropharyngeal and superficial cervical lymph nodes. Taken together, these results show a 30.3% infection prevalence in this scrapie-affected flock. Almost 7.4% of the infected animals harboured PrPSc exclusively in the peripheral lymphatic and nervous tissue and were therefore missed by the currently used testing strategy

Maximising soybean productivity with late maturity groups in Mediterranean irrigated systems

Context: The EU aims to improve plant protein production profitably and sustainably with a range of grain legumes suitable to different climatic conditions. Soybean (Glycine max Merrill) could be one important focus as the crop is adapted to diverse conditions and has the highest protein content per kg of grain. Under Mediterranean irrigated conditions, soybean presents a high -yielding potential, either as an annual single crop (SCS) or as part of a sequential double cropping system (DCS) following a winter crop. However, the lack of experimental data and knowledge in some southern areas like Spain, led to the use of rather early maturity groups (referring to experiences from more northern and eastern areas) that are underperforming in southern latitudes (i.e. < 42(degrees )N). Objective: The aims were to (i) explore later soybean maturity groups than currently used for SCS and DCS and (ii) quantify the drivers of their performance under Mediterranean irrigated conditions. Methods: A field experiment was carried out in NE Spain (2019, 2020 and 2021) in a split -plot design with four replications. In the main plots, SCS and DCS sowing dates were tested. In the sub -plots, 8-13 cultivars were tested per year covering MG from early 00 to late III. Five biomass sampling dates during soybean development were performed to fit a growth curve for every MG and sowing date. Grain yield, grain protein content, grains m- 2, thousand -grain weight, 1st pod height and biological N fixation were measured at physiological maturity. Results: The growth curve asymptote showed the strongest correlation with the soybean grain yield (r = 0.95) and the number of grains m-2 (r = 0.88). Consistent higher yields for MG II and III (4476 and 5314 kg ha( -1), respectively) were found in the SCS and DCS compared to earlier MG. Grain protein concentration was reduced in the later MG but in all cases exceeded 40 g 100 g(-1). In the DCS, a grain yield reduction of 25 % compared to SCS was observed, mainly caused by fewer grains m- 2. Biological N fixation was low (30 g 100 g(-1), on average), resulting from high residual soil N. Conclusions: In the SCS, the use of later MG (II and III) increases soybean yields. However, further research exploring MG III or later would better define soybean potential in these systems. While the agronomic performance of late MG (II and III) in the DCS was promising, technical aspects such as later harvesting date (moisture, pod shattering, etc.) or a slight reduction in grain protein concentration (although still above 40 g 100 g(-1)) should be considered. Implications or significance: Our study proposes a shift towards the use of later soybean MG for Mediterranean irrigated cropping systems as a strategy to improve its competitiveness and, likely, farmer's adoption. This study highlights the potential to expand soybean production towards Mediterranean irrigated areas with a high yield potential