STATUS OF CHECKOUT TECHNOLOGY

The author describes the various types of computerized checkout systems available and the relative merits of these systems.Agribusiness,

NATIONAL ORGANIC CERTIFICATION PROGRAM STATUS OCTOBER 1994

Agricultural and Food Policy,

AN ANALYSIS OF SMALL FOOD STORE SUPPLY SYSTEMS

Agribusiness,

The Impact of Fertilizer Subsidies on National Fertilizer Use: An Example from Malawi

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/30/08.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,

What are the Enduring Effects of Fertilizer Subsidy Programs on Recipient Farm Households? Evidence from Malawi

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/23/11.fertilizer subsidies, Malawi, Sub-Saharan Africa, endogeneity, panel data, International Development, Political Economy, C23, C26, Q12, Q13, Q18,

What are the Dynamic Effects of Fertilizer Subsidies on Household Well‐being? Evidence from Malawi

This study uses household level panel data from Malawi to measure the contemporaneous and dynamic impacts of fertilizer subsidies on different indicators of household well‐being. Well‐being is measured in this paper using indicators contained in available survey data, such as area cultivated, maize production, asset wealth, respondent‐stated adequacy of food consumption and respondent-stated life satisfaction. The study uses fixed effects and instrumental variable methods to control for endogeneity caused by the non‐random distribution of targeted fertilizer subsidies. Results indicate that the quantity of subsidized fertilizer acquired by a household has a positive contemporaneous effect on area planted, area planted to maize and maize production at the household level. The subsidy also has a significant dynamic effect on the quantity of maize that households produce. Subsidized fertilizer has no significant contemporaneous or dynamic effect on household asset accumulation. Receiving more subsidized fertilizer does not make households feel that their food consumption has been adequate over the past year, but receiving more subsidized fertilizer makes household heads say that they are more satisfied with their lives. Subsidized fertilizer appears to be going to people with more land. In addition, people in villages where members of parliament reside also receive greater quantities of subsidized fertilizer. These findings raise questions about how subsidy recipients are targeted. Improving targeting could increase the positive impacts of fertilizer subsidies on household well‐being.Food Security and Poverty,

Does Subsidizing Fertilizer Increase Yields? Evidence from Malawi

Despite their strain on government and donor budgets, fertilizer subsidies have once again become popular policy tools in several Sub-Saharan Africa countries as a potential way to increase yields in staple crops like maize. Policy makers often assume that farmers who receive the subsidy will achieve yield responses that are similar to those obtained by farmers who pay commercial prices for the input. This notion has not been verified empirically. Our study uses panel data from Malawi, a country that recently implemented a fertilizer subsidy program, to compare maize yield response to fertilizer from farmers who received subsidized fertilizer with yield responses from those who paid commercial prices for the input. Descriptive results indicate that maize plots using commercial fertilizer obtain higher yields per kilogram of fertilizer than maize plots that used subsidized fertilizer. Conversely, the results obtained using a fixed-effects estimator indicate that when other factors are controlled for, maize plots that use subsidized fertilizer obtain a higher yield response than other plots. The results seems to be influenced by a group of farmers who used no fertilizer before the subsidy program began, but used subsidized fertilizer after the program was implemented. This group of farmers obtained significantly higher yields in the year when they receive the subsidy than did the rest of the farmers in the sample during that year. These findings indicate that in order to be effective, government officials should specifically target fertilizer subsidies to farmers who lack access to commercial markets or would not otherwise find it profitable to purchase the input.Malawi, Fertilizer Subsidies, Production Function, Crop Production/Industries,

Ideal properties and integral extension of convolution operators on L∞(G)L^\infty (G)

We investigate operator ideal properties of convolution operators $C_\lambda$ (via measures $\lambda$) acting in ${L^\infty (G)}$, with $G$ a compact abelian group. Of interest is when $C_\lambda$ is compact, as this corresponds to $\lambda$ having an integrable density relative to Haar measure $\mu$, i.e., $\lambda \ll \mu$. Precisely then is there an \textit{optimal} Banach function space $L^1 (m_\lambda)$ available which contains ${L^\infty (G)}$ properly, densely and continuously and such that $C_\lambda$ has a continuous, ${L^\infty (G)}$-valued, linear extension $I_{m_\lambda}$ to $L^1 (m_\lambda)$. A detailed study is made of $L^1 (m_\lambda)$ and $I_{m_\lambda}$. Amongst other things, it is shown that $C_\lambda$ is compact iff the finitely additive, ${L^\infty (G)}$-valued set function $m_\lambda (A) := C_\lambda ({\chi_{_{_{\scriptstyle{A}}}}})$ is norm $\sigma$-additive iff $\lambda \in L^1 (G)$, whereas the corresponding optimal extension $I_{m_\lambda}$ is compact iff $\lambda \in C (G)$ iff $m_\lambda$ has finite variation. We also characterize when $m_\lambda$ admits a Bochner (resp.\ Pettis) $\mu$-integrable, $L^{\infty} (G)$-valued density

Report of the x ray and gamma ray sensors panel

Overall five major areas of technology are recommended for development in order to meet the science requirements of the Astrotech 21 mission set. These are: detectors for high resolution gamma ray spectroscopy, cryogenic detectors for improved x ray spectral and spatial resolution, advanced x ray charge coupled devices (CCDs) for higher energy resolution and larger format, extension to higher energies, liquid and solid position sensitive detectors for improving stopping power in the energy range 5 to 500 keV and 0.2 to 2 MeV. Development plans designed to achieve the desired capabilities on the time scales required by the technology freeze dates have been recommended in each of these areas

Malawi’s Maize Marketing System

National food security in Malawi depends on improving the performance of maize markets. Ensuring that grain is consistently available at tolerable prices is crucial for consumers’ food security. At the same time, surplus producing farmers need to receive farm-gate prices consistently above production costs to intensify the use of fertilizer and other productivity enhancing technologies in a sustainable manner. These concerns give rise to the classic food price dilemma for policy makers in Malawi: how to keep prices low enough to ensure low income consumers’ access to food while keeping prices high enough to promote farm production incentives. These tensions cannot be avoided but they can be relieved through reducing food marketing margins, which shrink the wedge between producer and consumer prices. Moreover, Malawi faces major political and economic problems associated with food price instability especially given its dependence on rain fed agriculture in a region prone to drought. These issues show that improving the performance of maize markets is at the core of achieving sustainable food security and poverty reduction in Malawi.food security, Malawi, maize, marketing, food policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Marketing, q12, q18,