Study of Pakistan pilot project farmer-leaders to Nepal

Farmer participation / Irrigation management / Farmer managed irrigation systems / Irrigated farming / Sustainable agriculture / Institution building / Pakistan

Assessing Water Charges under Changing Institutional Irrigation Management in Pakistan: A Methodological Framework

The Government of Pakistan has opted for institutional reforms for canal irrigation system of the country with a view to undertaking efficient operation and maintenance of the system and improving cost recovery. In the new reforms, the Farmers’ Organisations will manage distributaries and minors and pay the cost of upstream water in full. The complex hierarchy of the system poses serious challenges for working out the cost of water delivery for various channels. The paper presents a methodological framework for assessing the recoverable O&M costs from the farmers benefiting from an irrigation network. Hakra 4-R Distributary in the Eastern Sadiqia Canal serves as an illustration. The methodology shows how the beneficiary farmers can share the costs of the system. Simple methods are provided for working out water rates on the basis of volume of water received, commanded area, and duration of the irrigation turn. Out of the three methods, the area-based and time-based water rates have comparative advantage over the volumetric water rates owing to the resource endowments of the farmers.

Proposed business plan for pilot farmer organizations: Extended project on Farmer Managed Irrigated Agriculture in LBOD Project Area of Sindh Province

Farmers' associations / Farmer managed irrigation systems / Irrigation programs / Irrigation management / Drainage / Economic aspects / Income / Operating costs / Maintenance costs / Conflict

Performance of wheat genotypes under osmotic stress at germination and early seedling growth stage

Sixteen wheat genotypes including local varieties were tested in completely randomized design with three repeats. Data were recorded at four different moisture levels by using polyethylene glycol (PEG)6000 on germination percentage, germination rate index, shoot length, root length, fresh weight of shoot, dry weight of shoot, fresh weight of root, dry weight of root, shoot/root ratio and analysed forsignificance. The genotypes differ significantly in response to the moisture stress. There were highly significant differences for all traits. PK-18199 gave the maximum germination percentage, germinationrate index, shoot length root length, coleoptile length, fresh shoot weight, dry shoot weight, fresh root weight, dry root weight and root/shoot ratio under all four moisture stresses. PK-18175 showedmaximum resistance against moisture stress while WAFAQ 2001 showed minimum resistance. AS-2002 and KC033 also gave the better performance under all four moisture levels for most of the traits atseedling stage. 99FJ03 gave maximum root/shoot length ratio while PK 18199 gave minimum value of root/shoot length ratio showing resistance against water stress

Microbial biomass, nutrient availability and nutrient uptake by wheat in two soils with organic amendments

A 72-day greenhouse pot experiment was conducted with a sandy loam or a silt loam soil to examine the effects of farmyard manure (FYM), poultry litter (PL) and biogenic waste compost (BWC) at 10 g dw kg-1 soil on microbial biomass and activity and growth and nutrient uptake by wheat. Soil samples were collected at days 0, 14, 28, 42, 56 and 72 after planting. Growth and nutrient uptake by wheat were determined on day 72. All three amendments increased microbial biomass C, N and P, dehydrogenase activity, plant growth and nutrient uptake with a greater effect by FYM and PL than by BWC. All amendments increased microbial biomass C, N and P and enzyme activity particularly on day 0. These microbial parameters decreased after day 0 indicating microbial biomass turnover. All amendments increased plant growth and nutrient uptake. It is concluded that organicamendments can stimulate microbial growth and nutrient uptake as well as plant growth and nutrient uptake. Microbes can increase plant nutrient availability by nutrient mobilisation but also because nutrients taken up by the microbial biomass initially could become available to plants when the microbial biomass turns over as the easily available C is depleted.M.A. Malik, K.S. Khan, P. Marschner, Fayyaz-ul-Hassa

Role of Values and Environmental Concerns for the Sustainable Purchasing Behavior: Evidence From Pakistan

Sustainable purchasing is an attempt to purchase greener, healthier, and more economical items from greener, more sustainable organizations. It is based on the idea that each and every buy has shrouded human wellbeing through natural and social effects and that it is possible to decrease unfavourable effects by purchasing better items. The motive of the present study was to identify the role of values and environmental concerns for sustainable purchasing behaviour of buyers in the Pakistani green market. With the help of reliable and valid Likert type self-administered questionnaires, data was collected from the sample of the people who claim to live green lifestyles and purchase green products. Results of Smart PLS path model confirm that values and environmental concerns have an influence on sustainable purchasing behaviour in the Pakistani green market. This study provides a greater insight to improve purchaser behaviour in the green market of Pakistan and will help to increase the trust of buyers towards the green market

Open-Source and Proprietary Library Automation Software: A Comparative Academic Librarian's Perspective

The purpose of this study was to get an understanding of how academic librarians perceive open-source and proprietary library software. The researchers used a survey research approach and a self-constructed questionnaire as data collection tool. The study targeted 103 library professionals working at HEC-recognized degree awarding institutions (DAIs) and universities in Lahore, both public and private sectors, yielding an 84% response rate. To meet research objectives, descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. Study findings explored that library software should have the facility of advanced searching, library standards, and a user-friendly interface. Comparative analysis revealed that open-source library software contains more modules and requires highly skilled employees. On the other hand, human resources with minor skills can use proprietary software. Factors that prevent adopting OSS for academic libraries include a lack of technical support, skilled and motivated library professionals, inadequate cooperation between supervisors and subordinates, and insufficient training opportunities. Experienced library professionals should guide and offer full cooperation in the selection and implementation of software. Library schools and associations should play a decisive role through school curriculum and professional development programs in preparing graduates and practitioners for embracing modern technologies. Open-source software developers should also organize training programs for software users to work independently in libraries

On Type II Half Logistic Weibull Distribution with Applications

In recent years, several of new improved and extended probability distributions have been discovered from the current distributions to facilitate their applications in many fields. A new three-parameter distribution, the so called the Type II half logistic Weibull (TIIHLW), is introduced for modeling lifetime data. Some mathematical properties of the TIIHLW distribution are provided. Explicit expressions for the moments, probability weighted moments, quantile function, order statistics and Rényi entropy are investigated. Maximum likelihood estimation technique is employed to estimate the model parameters and simulation issues are presented. In addition, the superiority of the subject distribution is illustrated with an application to two real data sets.  Indeed, the TIIHLW model yields a better fit to these data than the beta Weibull, Mcdonald Weibull and exponentiated Weibull distributions. Keywords: Type II half logistic-G class; Weibull distribution, Order statistics; Maximum likelihood method. DOI: 10.7176/MTM/9-1-0

Base catalyzed transesterification of sunflower oil biodiesel

In this study, sunflower oil was investigated for biodiesel production. Sunflower is one of the leading oil seed crop, cultivated for the production of oil in the world. It has also been considered as an important crop for biodiesel production. Seeds for biodiesel production were procured from local farmers of Attock and Rawalpidni divisions. Electric oil expeller was used for the extraction of crude oil. Base catalyzed transesterifiction process is applied for optimum yield (80%) of biodiesel. Fuel properties of sunflower oil biodiesel were compared with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Engine efficiency of biodiesel with reference to power, efficiency and consumption of biodiesel blends (B100, B20 and B5) were determined. It was concluded that sunflower oil is one of the option for biodiesel production at a large scale depending on its mass cultivation.Keywords: Sunflower oil, transesterification, biodiesel, energ

Pass-Through of SBP Policy Rate to Market Interest Rates: An Empirical Investigation

Market based implementation of monetary policy embeds a swift and complete pass-through of changes in policy rate to market interest rates. This impacts the lending and deposit rates (retail rates) of the banking system. Incomplete and slow pass-through impairs the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission mechanism. This study estimates the degree and the speed of interest rate pass-through in case of Pakistan. Monthly data on State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) policy rate, money market rates and banks’ retail lending/deposit rates from July 2001 to August 2011 is used to estimate an unrestricted autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The standard ARDL model allows for the estimation of an error correction model, which helps in differentiating short run impact of changes in policy rate from its long run impact on the banks’ lending rates. The results indicate that while there is a swift pass-through from the policy rate (T-bill rates and overnight rate) to money market rate, the impact of changes in money market rates on the bank deposit rates is not only sluggish, but also incomplete. However, banks’ lending rates on fresh loans are more responsive to changes in money market rates as the banks have the luxury to take into account the changes in opportunity cost of funding