The purpose of this study is to correlate demography and socio-economic aspects at Irrigated Smallholder Agricultural Enterprises and their association with the Cultivation of Maize in order to determine its positive ...The purpose of this study is to correlate demography and socio-economic aspects at Irrigated Smallholder Agricultural Enterprises and their association with the Cultivation of Maize in order to determine its positive impacts at irrigated smallholders’ agricultural entrepreneurs’ household. Chi-square test was used as descriptive analysis method. The Fischer Exact tests were employed to test demography (gender, age, education, and income) in winter and summer production season of irrigated smallholder agricultural enterprises and their association with the cultivation of selected field crop (i.e. maize). The results show that gender results were not being statistically significant, as measured by the Phi measure of effect size, φ = 0.149, p = 0.011, and φ = 0.05, p = 0.392 in summer. As far as age is concern, it appears to be a statistically significant association between cultivating maize and age in winter, φ = 0.046, p = 0.730 in winter and φ = 0.172, p = 0.013. Education winter result not being statistically significant, the effect size showed a weak association, as measured by the Phi measure of effect size, φ = 0.112, p = 0.305 and φ = 0.035, p = 0.948 in summer. Income result not being statistically significant, as measured by the Phi measure of effect size, φ = 0.049, p = 0.399 and φ = 0.081, p = 0.166 in summer. In conclusion, the study shows that the development of best management practices must be based on a comprehensive analysis of the livelihoods and irrigated smallholder agricultural enterprise farming styles of participating irrigated smallholder agricultural entrepreneurs.展开更多
Smallholder farming systems are important for global food security,but these faces multiple environmental challenges hindering sustainable development.Although sustainable smallholder agriculture issues have been wide...Smallholder farming systems are important for global food security,but these faces multiple environmental challenges hindering sustainable development.Although sustainable smallholder agriculture issues have been widely discussed and addressed by scientists globally,harmonized approaches in evaluating sustainability are still lacking.This paper proposes a five-step process for constructing a sustainability assessment method for smallholder farming systems,namely definition of system boundary&functional unit,indicator selection,indicator weighting,indicator conversion,and indicator aggregation.The paper summarizes the state-of-art progresses in agricultural sustainability assessment at different stages,and systematically discussed the benefits and limitations of weighting and aggregation methods.Overall,this evaluation process should be useful by providing rational and comprehensive results for quantifying the sustainability of smallholder farming systems,and will contribute to practice by providing decision-makers with directions for improving sustainable strategies.展开更多
文摘The purpose of this study is to correlate demography and socio-economic aspects at Irrigated Smallholder Agricultural Enterprises and their association with the Cultivation of Maize in order to determine its positive impacts at irrigated smallholders’ agricultural entrepreneurs’ household. Chi-square test was used as descriptive analysis method. The Fischer Exact tests were employed to test demography (gender, age, education, and income) in winter and summer production season of irrigated smallholder agricultural enterprises and their association with the cultivation of selected field crop (i.e. maize). The results show that gender results were not being statistically significant, as measured by the Phi measure of effect size, φ = 0.149, p = 0.011, and φ = 0.05, p = 0.392 in summer. As far as age is concern, it appears to be a statistically significant association between cultivating maize and age in winter, φ = 0.046, p = 0.730 in winter and φ = 0.172, p = 0.013. Education winter result not being statistically significant, the effect size showed a weak association, as measured by the Phi measure of effect size, φ = 0.112, p = 0.305 and φ = 0.035, p = 0.948 in summer. Income result not being statistically significant, as measured by the Phi measure of effect size, φ = 0.049, p = 0.399 and φ = 0.081, p = 0.166 in summer. In conclusion, the study shows that the development of best management practices must be based on a comprehensive analysis of the livelihoods and irrigated smallholder agricultural enterprise farming styles of participating irrigated smallholder agricultural entrepreneurs.
基金supported by China Scholarship Council(201913043).
文摘Smallholder farming systems are important for global food security,but these faces multiple environmental challenges hindering sustainable development.Although sustainable smallholder agriculture issues have been widely discussed and addressed by scientists globally,harmonized approaches in evaluating sustainability are still lacking.This paper proposes a five-step process for constructing a sustainability assessment method for smallholder farming systems,namely definition of system boundary&functional unit,indicator selection,indicator weighting,indicator conversion,and indicator aggregation.The paper summarizes the state-of-art progresses in agricultural sustainability assessment at different stages,and systematically discussed the benefits and limitations of weighting and aggregation methods.Overall,this evaluation process should be useful by providing rational and comprehensive results for quantifying the sustainability of smallholder farming systems,and will contribute to practice by providing decision-makers with directions for improving sustainable strategies.
