Agricultural Input Subsidies in Pakistan: Nature and Impact

Pakistan has a history of subsidising agricultural inputs. Although none of the agricultural inputs were subsidised during the early 1950s, the process was initiated in the second half of the decade by subsidising chemical fertilisers in order to popularise their use [Niaz (1984)]. The list of subsidised inputs and the rate structure of the subsidies were expanded considerably throughout the Sixties. Towards the end of the Sixties, it was noted that almost all the agricultural inputs including fertilisers, insecticides, seeds, irrigation water, tubewell installations, and the operation and purchase of tractors and tractor-related equipment were subsidised in one form or another [Aresvik (1967) and Kuhnen (1989)]. In the 1970s, some curtailment of subsidies occurred as a result of input price increases which followed the worldwide recession, a major oil shock, the credit crunch, the war with India, and the consequent steep devaluation of Pakistani Rupee [Chaudhry (1982)]. Although the subsidies had survived the onslaught of the Seventies and tended to persist on most inputs, the government became totally committed to their removal beginning with the 1980s, under pressures from the IMF and the World Bank [Government of Pakistan (1980)]. As a consequence, there was a total withdrawal of subsidy from seeds, insecticides, tubewells, and tractors. A phased-out withdrawal of fertiliser subsidy, culminating in 1984-85 in the case of nitrogenous fertilisers and in 1989-90 in the case of phosphatic and potash fertilisers, was also to be undertaken [World Bank (1986)]. The purpose of the present paper is to highlight the progress of withdrawal of input subsidies in Pakistan, to study the nature of the input subsidies and possibly analyse the impact of the withdrawal of subsidies on the farm sector. Needless to add that the study is also intended to make policy recommendations on the various aspects of subsidy withdrawal.

Pricing Irrigation Water in Pakistan: An Evaluation of Available Options

Irrigation water shortages have lately been a main area of concern for policymakers and planners in Pakistan. Current literature on the country’s water resources predicts an alarming situation regarding the availability of irrigation water in the future due to declining water tables and serious financial, environmental, and social constraints of developing big storage reservoirs. Since there is little room to augment water supplies by building new dams, the existing supply-driven surface irrigation system needs to be replaced by a demand-based system with special focus on water use efficiency through the introduction of an appropriate water pricing system. The present study aims to evaluate several alternative water pricing systems in the search for choosing one that will ensure efficient use of irrigation water in Pakistan. A related objective is to test the extent of sensitivity of the demand for irrigation water to a change in alternative water prices. A major conclusion that emerges from this research is that irrigation water shortages are the result of the inflexibility of the present irrigation water supply system for agricultural use and have little to do with the existing water pricing practice in the country. Furthermore, the results of our water price simulations exercise confirm the general perception that demand for irrigation water is less sensitive to changes in alternative irrigation water prices. Two findings from the pricing policy perspective are: (i) irrigation water is not available in adequate quantity to farmers in the nine sub-districts surveyed at almost all of the alternative prices in Pakistan’s irrigated agriculture sector since the predicted water usage at all prices is greater than the actual usage for all districts; and (ii) our empirical analysis indicates significant inefficiency of resource allocation in respect of irrigation water as shown by its positively large marginal value product to opportunity cost ratio

Spontaneous breaking of time reversal symmetry in strongly interacting two dimensional electron layers in silicon and germanium

We report experimental evidence of a remarkable spontaneous time reversal symmetry breaking in two dimensional electron systems formed by atomically confined doping of phosphorus (P) atoms inside bulk crystalline silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge). Weak localization corrections to the conductivity and the universal conductance fluctuations were both found to decrease rapidly with decreasing doping in the Si:P and Ge:P $\delta-$layers, suggesting an effect driven by Coulomb interactions. In-plane magnetotransport measurements indicate the presence of intrinsic local spin fluctuations at low doping, providing a microscopic mechanism for spontaneous lifting of the time reversal symmetry. Our experiments suggest the emergence of a new many-body quantum state when two dimensional electrons are confined to narrow half-filled impurity bands

NDM-562: BEHAVIOUR OF CONCRETE COLUMNS WITH GFRP CIRCULAR AND RECTILINEAR CONFINING REINFORCEMENT

Glass Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) bars are becoming a feasible alternative to steel bars to produce corrosion- free reinforced concrete structures. In an effort to assess the effectiveness GFRP spirals and GFRP rectilinear ties as internal reinforcement in columns, an extensive research program is underway at the University of Toronto. Fifteen 356 mm diameter full-scale circular columns and sixteen 305 mm x 305 mm cross-section square columns were constructed and tested under simulated earthquake loading. This extended abstract presents an example comparison of the experimental behaviour of circular and square concrete columns with internal reinforcement comprising of steel longitudinal bars and GFRP lateral spirals or ties. Results are presented in the form of moment vs. curvature response and shear vs. lateral deflection behaviour

Numerical Modelling and Calibration of CFS Framed Shear Walls under Dynamic Loading

This paper describes the numerical modeling using OpenSees of steel sheathed cold-formed steel framed shear wall test specimens under dynamic loading. Two modeling phases were carried out; the first phase comprised non-linear models calibrated using existing reversed cyclic shear wall test data, and the second phase involved more advanced models calibrated using data from dynamic shake table tests of single- and double-storey shear walls as well as other ancillary test programs. The second phase models incorporated the behaviour of the hold-downs, floor framing and blocked bare frame, in addition to the sheathing. The final calibrated models were able to accurately predict the displacement and force response time histories of the single- and double-storey shear wall specimens. These calibrated models will later be relied on for Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDA) of representative building structures to evaluate seismic design provisions for cold-formed steel framed shear walls to be used in conjunction with the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC)

Cultural barriers to the disclosure of child sexual abuse in Asian communities: Listening to what women say.

NoThere is apparent under-reporting of child sexual abuse in Britain¿s Asian communities and a varied capacity amongst professionals to respond with cultural competence. Professional approaches originate in cultural contexts, which are often different from those of most British Asians. If the proportion of children and non-abusing carers from Asian communities who access relevant services is to increase, professionals need to develop better understandings of cultural imperatives which determine behaviour in those communities. Consultations with Asian women in Bradford reinforce the view that culturally competent practice and respectful dialogue are essential to the protection of children. They also highlight a number of recurring themes. Members of Asian communities are aware of child sexual abuse, they recognize that the issue needs to be addressed by all communities and they report that many of those affected within their own communities have found it difficult to access relevant services. These consultations, like reports of similar work elsewhere, indicate that difficulties, which appear to arise from Asian women¿s fears about how agencies will respond, are frequently compounded by the impact of cultural imperatives arising from izzat (honour/respect), haya (modesty) and sharam (shame/embarrassment), which have a considerable influence on how many will behave

Agricultural Input Subsidies in Pakistan: Nature and Impact

Pakistan has a history of subsidising agricultural inputs. Although none of the agricultural inputs were subsidised during the early 1950s, the process was initiated in the second half of the decade by subsidising chemical fertilisers in order to popularise their use [Niaz (1984)]. The list of subsidised inputs and the rate structure of the subsidies were expanded considerably throughout the Sixties. Towards the end of the Sixties, it was noted that almost all the agricultural inputs including fertilisers, insecticides, seeds, irrigation water, tubewell installations, and the operation and purchase of tractors and tractor-related equipment were subsidised in one form or another [Aresvik (1967) and Kuhnen (1989)]. In the 1970s, some curtailment of subsidies occurred as a result of input price increases which followed the worldwide recession, a major oil shock, the credit crunch, the war with India, and the consequent steep devaluation of Pakistani Rupee [Chaudhry (1982)]. Although the subsidies had survived the onslaught of the Seventies and tended to persist on most inputs, the government became totally committed to their removal beginning with the 1980s, under pressures from the IMF and the World Bank [Government of Pakistan (1980)]. As a consequence, there was a total withdrawal of subsidy from seeds, insecticides, tubewells, and tractors. A phased-out withdrawal of fertiliser subsidy, culminating in 1984-85 in the case of nitrogenous fertilisers and in 1989-90 in the case of phosphatic and potash fertilisers, was also to be undertaken [World Bank (1986)]

Thermoelectric Properties of Electrostatically Tunable Antidot Lattices

We report on the fabrication and characterization of a device which allows the formation of an antidot lattice (ADL) using only electrostatic gating. The antidot potential and Fermi energy of the system can be tuned independently. Well defined commensurability features in magnetoresistance as well as magnetothermopower are obsereved. We show that the thermopower can be used to efficiently map out the potential landscape of the ADL.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Appl. Phys. Let

生化学ネットワークの確率論的ダイナミクスのシミュレーションと理論解析

九州工業大学博士学位論文（要旨）学位記番号：情工博甲第330号 学位授与年月日：平成29年9月22

Depositional Environment of Phosphorites of the Sonrai Basin, Lalitpur District, Uttar Pradesh, India

Phosphates are regarded as one of the most important fertilizer minerals used by man. In Sonrai basin of Lalitpur the phosphorites are found to occur as lenticular and detached bodies throughout the Formation of the Bijawar Group. Individual bodies range from a few meters to about 4 km in length, and width varies from thin bands to about 125 meter with P2O5 concentration ranging from 10 to 20%. The Paleoproterozoic Bijawar Group are overlain by the Archaean Bundelkhand Basement Complex and underlain by Vindhyan Supergroup. The occurrence of phosphorites is confined to the Sonrai Formation which consists of massive to brecciated phosphorite within the lower reddish shales, with at least three bands identified. Megascopic study reveals that the brecciated phosphorite is reddish brown in color and fine to medium grained with angular fragments of chert and quartz embedded in a groundmass of iron oxides and secondary silica intercalated with minor veins of chert and iron oxides. The phosphorite horizon in the Lalitpur area is associated with pink to white brecciated massive quartzite, shale, dolomite and limestone of the basal unit. The concentration trends of certain major oxides indicate that the phosphorites are more enriched in CaO, P2O5 and SiO2 than Al2O3, Fe2O3, TiO2, Na2O and K2O. The concentration trends of trace elements reveal that the phosphorites are moderately enriched in Co, Zn, Zr, Pb, U than in Sc, Ba, V, Cr, Ni, , Rb, Sr, Y and Th. The dispersion patter, correlation coefficient and mutual relationship of significant major oxides represented by plotted diagrams, indicate that SiO2, CaO, MgO are antipathetically related with P2O5. The relationship suggests a gradual replacement among these oxides during diagenesis. High values of P2O5 and CaO in the phosphorites indicate more concentration of apatite constituent. The difference in geochemical behavior of CaO and MgO may be due to ionic substitution of Ca+2 by MgO+2 in the apatite crystal lattice during alkaline environment of the basin. The strong negative relationship between P2O5 with Fe2O3 in phosphorites may be due to leaching and/mild weathering of iron from the ores and reprecipitation along with P2O5 in the pore spaces, cavities/voids, veins, etc in highly oxidizing marine environment of the basin. The minimum evidence of organic matter, absence of sulphide minerals and lower concentration of V, Ni, and Cu suggest that the phosphorites were deposited in an oxidizing environment with slightly anaerobic to highly aerobic facies