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.

Optimization and Performance of the ATLAS Tau Trigger with Cosmics Data

Cosmics data are providing a valuable handle to optimize and commission the ATLAS detector before beam collissions. In this process the ATLAS Tau Trigger is also exercising and adjusting its different components, namely the hardware based first level trigger, and the second and third levels, implemented with software. In this contribution we summarize the performance at the different stages with cosmics events, and compare with Monte Carlo simulation and offline reconstructed muon candidates. We also describe the prospects for initial running with beam collisions, focusing on the commission of the second and third level tau triggers and the strategy to measure the first trigger efficiencies with data

Three new species of Nematodes from sugarcane fields in Nigeria

Three new species of plant nematodes belonging to the genus Boleodorus Thorne, 1941 ; Paratylenchus Micoletzky, 1922 and Xiphinema Cobb, 1913 are described from the sugarcane fields in Gengola state, North East, Nigeria. Boleodorus acuruus n.sp. is closely related to B. clavicaudatus Thorne, 1941 but differs in length of body and spear and in shape of lip region. The shifting of B. clavicaudatus to Boleodoroides Mathur et al., 1966 is disputed. Paratylenchus variatus n.sp. differs from the closely related P. leptus Raski, 1975 in shape of lip region and in the sizc of spear, and from P. colbrani Raski, 1975 in having only two or three incisures in the lateral fields, in shape of tail and absence of males. Xiphinema brevistylus n.sp. differs from the closely related X. tarjani Luc, 1975 in absence of "blind canal" in tail, smaller odontostyle and odontophore and anteriorly located vulva, and from X. vulgare Tarjan, 1964 in smaller and differently shaped tail, smaller odontostyle and odontophore and posteriorly located vulva

Handwritten Digit Recognition Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Handwritten character recognition is one of the practically important issues in pattern recognition applications. The applications of digit recognition includes in postal mail sorting, bank check processing, form data entry, etc. The heart of the problem lies within the ability to develop an efficient algorithm that can recognize hand written digits and which is submitted by users by the way of a scanner, tablet, and other digital devices. This paper presents an approach to off-line handwritten digit recognition based on different machine learning technique. The main objective of this paper is to ensure effective and reliable approaches for recognition of handwritten digits. Several machines learning algorithm namely, Multilayer Perceptron, Support Vector Machine, NaFDA5; Bayes, Bayes Net, Random Forest, J48 and Random Tree has been used for the recognition of digits using WEKA. The result of this paper shows that highest 90.37% accuracy has been obtained for Multilayer Perceptron

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