Characterization of Small-Scale Farmers and Assessment of Their Access to Crop Production Information in Selected Counties of Kenya

Small-scale farming accounts for 78% of total agricultural production in Kenya and contributes to 23.5% of the country’s GDP. Their crop production activities are mostly rainfed subsistence with any surplus being sold to bring in some income. Timely decisions on farm practices such as farm preparation and planting are critical determinants of the seasonal outcomes. In Kenya, most small-scale farmers have no reliable source of information that would help them make timely and accurate decisions. County governments have extension officers who are mandated with giving farmers advisory services to farmers but they are not able to reach most farmers due to facilitation constraints. The mode and format of sharing information is also critical since it’s important to ensure that it’s timely, well-understood and usable. This study sought to assess access to geospatial derived and other crop production information by farmers in four selected counties of Kenya. Specific objectives were to determine the profile of small-scale farmers in terms of age, education and farm size;to determine the type of information that is made available to them by County and Sub-County extension officers including the format and mode of provision;and to determine if the information provided was useful in terms of accuracy, timeliness and adequacy. The results indicated that over 80% of the farmers were over 35 years of age and over 56% were male. Majority had attained primary education (34%) or secondary education (29%) and most farmers in all the counties grew maize (71%). Notably, fellow farmers were a source of information (71%) with the frequency of sharing information being mostly seasonal (37%) and when information was available (43%). Over 66% of interviewed farmers indicating that they faced challenges while using provided information. The results from the study are insightful and helpful in determining effective ways of providing farmers with useful information to ensure maximum benefits.

Is the feminization of labor harmful to agricultural production? The decision-making and production control perspective

Even today,academics continue to debate the effect of feminization of agricultural labor force on agricultural output.By considering the dimensions of participation in decision-making and production,this study divides the various agricultural production models into three types:(i)the traditional model of decisions made either jointly by men and women or by men alone while both genders participate in production,(ii)complete feminization of agricultural decision-making and the production labor force,and(iii)feminization of the agricultural production labor force only.This study investigates the effects of combining or separating decision-making and production in regard to agricultural development in the context of feminization of the agricultural labor force.Using follow-up data collected from 2004–2008 by the Ministry of Agriculture of China,we built a comprehensive panel data model to test our hypotheses.Our research shows that in comparison to traditional agricultural households and fully feminized agricultural labor forces,partially feminized production resulted in lower grain yield and technological advancement.The feminization of agricultural labor does not necessarily have a negative impact on agricultural output,especially since heavy manual labor is being increasingly replaced by agricultural machinery and outsourcing of tasks.The degree of feminization of the decision-making and production processes should be an important consideration when evaluating the purported negative effects of the feminization of agricultural labor.

The Decision-Making Processes of the Agents Belonging to the Biodiesel Production Chain in Southern Brazil

The aim of this paper is to present and analyze the factors, motivations and criteria considered in the decision-making processes of the actors belonging to the biodiesel production chain in Brazil. The biodiesel production chain consists of three main agents： the farmers, the soybean processing plants and the oil refinery/distributor. For the farmers organized in cooperatives the central decision is whether to sell oil-bearing crops for the production of biodiesel. In contrast, for the soybean processing plants that convert the crops into vegetable and/or biodiesel, the decision to produce this fuel is based on the wish to expand their market portfolio. Government tax incentives strongly influence both decisions regarding which oil-bearing crop to use and the amount of vegetable oil to be transformed into biodiesel. Finally, the oil refinery/distributor is obliged by law to mix the biodiesel with the mineral diesel and perceives this as a liability. The results show the existence of different characteristics linked to the decision-making process and a significant lack of synchronicity in the aims and motivations behind the agents＇ decisions. This state of decisional misalignment leads to heightened uncertainty regarding the sustainability of the Brazilian biodiesel production program.

Dendritic cells derived from pluripotent stem cells:Potential of large scale production

Human pluripotent stem cells(hPSCs), including human embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells, are promising sources for hematopoietic cells due to their unlimited growth capacity and the pluripotency. Dendritic cells(DCs), the unique immune cells in the hematopoietic system, can be loaded with tumor specific antigen and used as vaccine for cancer immunotherapy. While autologous DCs from peripheral blood are limited in cell number, hPSC-derived DCs provide a novel alternative cell source which has the potential for large scale production. This review summarizes recent advances in differentiating hPSCs to DCs through the intermediate stage of hematopoietic stem cells. Step-wise growth factor induction has been used to derive DCs from hPSCs either in suspension cultureof embryoid bodies(EBs) or in co-culture with stromal cells. To fulfill the clinical potential of the DCs derived from hPSCs, the bioprocess needs to be scaled up to produce a large number of cells economically under tight quality control. This requires the development of novel bioreactor systems combining guided EB-based differentiation with engineered culture environment. Hence, recent progress in using bioreactors for hPSC lineage-specific differentiation is reviewed. In particular, the potential scale up strategies for the multistage DC differentiation and the effect of shear stress on hPSC differentiation in bioreactors are discussed in detail.

Multidisciplinary design optimization on production scale of underground metal mine

In order to ensure overall optimization of the underground metal mine production scale, multidisciplinary design optimization model of production scale which covers the subsystem objective function of income of production, safety and environmental impact in the underground metal mine was established by using multidisciplinary design optimization method. The coupling effects from various disciplines were fully considered, and adaptive mutative scale chaos immunization optimization algorithm was adopted to solve multidisciplinary design optimization model of underground metal mine production scale. Practical results show that multidisciplinary design optimization on production scale of an underground lead and zinc mine reflect the actual operating conditions more realistically, the production scale is about 1.25 Mt/a (Lead and zinc metal content of 160 000 t/a), the economic life is approximately 14 a, corresponding coefficient of production profits can be increased to 15.13%, safety factor can be increased to 5.4% and environmental impact coefficient can be reduced by 9.52%.

An intelligent system for calculating the scale of rational,enlarged production of an underground non-ferrous metal mine

The enlarged production scale of underground non-ferrous metal mines is affected by many uncertain factors difficult to describe mathematically with any level of accuracy.The problem can be solved by a synthesis of artificial intelligence.Based on the analysis of the major factors affecting the scale of enlarged production,we first interpreted in detail the design principles and structure of the intelligent system.Secondly,we introduced an ANN subsystem.In order to ensure technological and scale efficien- cies of the training samples for ANN,we filtrated the samples with a DEA method.Finally,we trained the intelligent system,which was proved to be very efficient.

Effects of the Produced Water from a Sour Oilfield in South Kuwait on the Production Tubing

Kuwaiti oil production faces a growing challenge in the increasing quantities of produced water generated in the production of oil. The high water cut of the produced fluid from the wells and the high salinity of the produced water lead to significant degradation of subsurface equipment, specifically the production tubing. Debris generated through the degradation of the inner part of the tubing becomes a constituent of the scaling that deposits in the tubing and blocks the flow of the production fluid, inducing higher maintenance costs. This paper looks at the characteristics of the scaling in regard to the produced water and outlines the economic impact of the produced water induced degradation of the tubing structure.

An Empirical Study on the Moderate Scale of Food-production-based Family Farm in Guangxi

The moderate scale family farm is the future agricultural business entity in China,and the scale of family farm is a key factor affecting its development.With Guigang City in Guangxi as a point for the study,from the perspective of maximizing income of rural households,this paper uses production function model to calculate the moderate scale of food-production-based family farm at 5.7 ha,and makes policy recommendations.

Effective decision-making model for hi-tech new product development

In order to identify the effective decision-making factors at the individual NPD project manager level, a new effective decision-making model has been established by introducing the concept of decision-making effectiveness, analyzing the role of expertise, and identifying the major role of expertise and insight with respect to the interfaces between a new product, an organization, customers, technologies and regulations, for the study of the effective decision-making facilitators and inhibitors for a NPD project. The analysis of the unique task conditions for individual decision-makers shows that perceived complexity, uncertainty and time pressure have their negative effect on the effective decision-making process. It is concluded that the flexible, balanced and appropriate use of rational analysis, common sense and intuition is a key effective decision-making factor, and the psychologically ‘active attitude’ of a manager is also an important factor for successful dealing with the difficult task conditions.

Leveraging Robust Artificial Intelligence for Mechatronic Product Development—A Literature Review

Mechatronic product development is a complex and multidisciplinary field that encompasses various domains, including, among others, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control theory and software engineering. The integration of artificial intelligence technologies is revolutionizing this domain, offering opportunities to enhance design processes, optimize performance, and leverage vast amounts of knowledge. However, human expertise remains essential in contextualizing information, considering trade-offs, and ensuring ethical and societal implications are taken into account. This paper therefore explores the existing literature regarding the application of artificial intelligence as a comprehensive database, decision support system, and modeling tool in mechatronic product development. It analyzes the benefits of artificial intelligence in enabling domain linking, replacing human expert knowledge, improving prediction quality, and enhancing intelligent control systems. For this purpose, a consideration of the V-cycle takes place, a standard in mechatronic product development. Along this, an initial assessment of the AI potential is shown and important categories of AI support are formed. This is followed by an examination of the literature with regard to these aspects. As a result, the integration of artificial intelligence in mechatronic product development opens new possibilities and transforms the way innovative mechatronic systems are conceived, designed, and deployed. However, the approaches are only taking place selectively, and a holistic view of the development processes and the potential for robust and context-sensitive artificial intelligence along them is still needed.

Kenyan Counties Geospatial Data Knowledge to Monitor Crop Production

Climate change effects have had negative effects on most farmers, both small and large-scale, with weather patterns increasingly becoming unpredictable, such that farmers are unable to plan well for their farming, resulting in reduced harvests and sometimes losses for farmers. Better availability of information such as weather patterns, suitable crops, nutrient requirements based on soil types and conditions would greatly alleviate these challenges. While geospatial information is being developed and improved continuously by researchers, its accessibility and use by the counties has not been established and cannot be identified as contributing to better crop production outcomes. The aim of this study, therefore, was to assess the awareness and status of geospatial data availability and use for crop production, and the level of the relevant capacities, both human and infrastructural, in selected Counties of Kenya. A survey was conducted in the four counties of Vihiga, Kilifi, Wajir and Nyeri and key informant interviews were conducted with both management and technical County Agricultural Officers, as well as sub-county agricultural extension officers. From the results of the survey, out of the four counties, only one has adequate infrastructure in terms of hard-ware, software and connectivity to conduct useful geospatial data acquisition and processing. While most indicated awareness of the existence of geospatial data, limited resources, low skills and knowledge have restricted any meaningful sourcing of and access to data, with only 38% moderately or highly skilled in acquisition, 48% in processing and 57% in interpretation and use of geospatial data. The study concludes that moderate skills and capacities available within the counties have considerable potential to make use the available geospatial data to inform farmers accordingly and improve their farming outcomes.

Study of Product Quality Information and Construction of Its Decision-Making Support System and Measures to Improve People's Quality Concept

The 21th century is a "quality century". Facing the s evere challenge about quality, all the developed industry countries attach impor tance to the research and education about quality project. With the deepening of the reform of China and it’s joining to WTO, many industries and enterprises wi ll be confronted with severe challenge while being offered the opportunity to wa lk up to the world. The arrival of knowledge economy and web time has provided t he space for the innovation on enterprise management. It has also provided new m ethod and model for enterprise management, that is online management based on th e internet. The online management use an enterprise model including the goal of the enterprise and the scheme to carry out it to represent the whole operational of all the work. The online management is constructed on the integration of exp ert system, database, software and other technical models. How to scientifically manage the entire system of product, precisely master the condition of quantity and quality and analyze the rules of the change of produc t quality in order to carry out the overall control of quality, guarantee the go od condition of product as well as improve product quality and prolong it’s se rvice life was discussed in this thesis. Based on the above research the thesis also discussed how to develop the study on product quality information and const ruct it’s decision making support system. The concrete measures to improve peopl e’s concept of quality are also raised. Based on the type analysis, scientific management of product quality information should start from dynamic information of quality, instruction information as we ll as the information about the use, maintain, management and conservation of pr oduct, and induce them and further propose a design scheme of feedback system on product quality information, and then set up the blueprint of the information s ystem of product quality. This thesis included 7 chapters:1.the type of quality information;2.the content of quality information;3.the construction of the se nsitive web for transfering information, and collecting and transfering quality information rapidly and effectively;4.the way and procedure to transfer informa tion;5.the construction of quality information library for all phases; 6.the d isposal of quality information;7.the decision making support system of the mana gement of quality information;8.attach importance to three key factors on impro ving quality concept.

Study on the Production Benefit of Large-scale Tobacco Growers

The tobacco growers with the growing area of greater than or equal to 100 mu,have become an important subject of tobacco production in Weng'an County of Guizhou Province. Regulating and developing the production and business activities of large-scale tobacco growers, plays an important role in stabilizing tobacco production,reducing costs and increasing efficiency in Weng'an County. Through the field survey of large-scale growers' production activities,this article analyzes the input and output levels,and explores the key factors influencing benefit, in order to provide a basis for further regulating the tobacco growing practices and improving the flue-cured tobacco production benefit.

Impact of Small-scale Production Mode on Citrus Industry of Hunan Province,China——Based on the Investigation on Citrus Industry in Shimen County

Small-scale farmer is defined by the domestic and foreign experts and scholars.They point out that since the fragmentation of production and the diseconomy of scale in small-scale farmer is inconsistent with the characteristics of scale and technology of modern agricultural production,it is necessary to eliminate the adverse effects of existing mode in order to provide theoretical references for the relevant researches.Citrus industry in Shimen County,Hunan Province,China is introduced from the aspects of natural geographical condition and socio-economic benefit.Impact of small-scale production mode on citrus production in Shimen County is discussed.Firstly,blindness of small-scale production is the main reason leading to overproduction of citrus.Secondly,small-scale production mode has limitation on the acceptance of new technologies,restricts the operation of geographical trademark,and constraints the enthusiasm of enterprises in entering the agricultural field.Finally,suggestions are put forward,such as encouraging the circulation of rural land,improving the organization degree of farmers,changing the work function of grass-roots government and perfecting the agricultural financial credit system.

Sustainable Potato Production in the Mountain Area of Ecuador, an Approach to Increase Productivity with Small Scale Farmers

Ecuador potato crop is family based production system. Potato production has two roles in their economy, the first is providing food for their families and the second is a source of income for the household. However small scale farmers have limited access to local markets and most of the sales are through intermediates’ who purchase directly in the field at the lowest price possible. Potato production challenges for the small-scale farmers are among others availability of quality potato seed, direct sales, purchase of agrochemical inputs to maintain their crops and lack of education. In 2021, only 4% of potato farmers used certified seed. Potato yield is still low around 16.1 t·ha-1, in the last 10 years the total potato cultivated area was reduced by at least 50%. The farmers produce “Bokashi” and other organic fertilizer and these are effective to improve soil fertility and plant health. Homemade bio-pesticides reduce agrochemical pesticides. The Decision Support System (DSS) is a handheld device to control late blight, minimizes fungicide applications and improve fungicide rotation. In 2018 Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (Lso), the causal agent of zebra chip, and its vector, the potato psyllid Bactericera cockerelli, together created havoc for farmers and researchers. Promotion of early potato varieties INIAP—Libertad is an alternative to lower the impact of this newest pest.

Wear Resistance of CO_2 Corrosion Product Scale Formed at High Temperature

To investigate the correlation between structure characteristics and wear resistance of CO2 corrosion product scales at high temperature and high pressure, an autoclave was used to prepare CO2 corrosion product scales on N80 steel in carbon dioxide corrosion environment. The correlation between wear resistance of the scales and many other factors, such as temperature, pressure, morphology, structure, velocity of fluid medium, sand grain size, and so on, was comparatively analyzed by a self assembled wear device, and the scale morphologies before or after being worn were observed by scanning electron microscope （SEM）. And then the surface grain size and thickness of scale were measured. The results showed that the cross-section of the corrosion scale was of a double-layer structure, the outer layer of which was composed of regular crystals, whereas the inner layer was a thin scale of fine grains. The outer grain size and thickness of scale varied with temperature, and the initial wear loss was consistent with the surface grain size; at the same time, the total wear loss corresponded to the thickness of scale. Compared to wear resist- ance in different depths of the scale, it was found that the structure of scale was a double-layer structure in cross-section, and the wear resistance of inner layer was better than that of the outer layer; the closer the scale to the matrix, the greater was the wear resistance of scale; and the larger the size or the higher the rotary speed of solid grain in multiphase flowing medium, the more was the wear loss of scale.

Technical efficiency and its determinants in China's hog production

China＇s hog production is undergoing a great transformation due to the soaring demand and changing raising system. Regarding the essential role of pork in Chinese diet, a systematic analysis on the productivity and efficiency of hog production can provide significant implications for policy makers. This paper investigates the productivity and efficiency of hog production and the determinants of technical efficiency in China using a household level panel data（2004–2010）. A stochastic frontier translog production function with scaling property in inefficiency term is adopted for hog production analysis, and the determinants of technical efficiency are incorporated in a one-step estimation using maximum likelihood estimation. Our results show that the average technical efficiency of hog production in China is 0.5914. More importantly, we find that specialized farmers have higher technical efficiency than others, and technical efficiency in the eastern region is higher than that in Central and West China.

Empirical Research on E-commerce to Increase the Scale of Agricultural Products Trade: Taking Guangxi Hezhou Zhengfeng Modern Agriculture Co.,Ltd. as an Example

Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy.The periodicity of agricultural product output and prices,the asymmetry of information between buyers and sellers,and the inherent characteristics of small scale,high cost,and low profit have caused slow sales,which greatly hurt the enthusiasm of farmers to develop production and endanger social stability.Constructing an informationized and commercialized trading platform and an information sharing platform through e-commerce and establishing related systems and supervision mechanisms will help to promote the rapid growth of agricultural product sales.Research has shown that in the field of agricultural circulation,e-commerce has a significant effect on increasing the scale of agricultural trade.

Efficiency Evaluation of Effect of Direct Grain Subsidy Policy on Performance of Rice Production

Using the DEA analysis method,on the basis of the national panel data from 2002 to 2014,this paper made a comparative analysis on the rice production performance before and after the implementation of direct grain subsidy policy,and made an empirical analysis on the relationship between the direct grain subsidy policy and the changes in the rice production performance. The results showed that the effect of the direct grain subsidy policy on promoting the rice production performance is declining year by year,largely because drop of scale efficiency. Besides,there are problems of serious redundancy in agricultural subsidy,unreasonable resource allocation,leading to low performance and resource waste of rice production.

Robust Corner Detection Based on Multi-scale Curvature Product in B-spline Scale Space

这份报纸在 B 花键弯曲规模空间的框架论述一种多尺度的弯曲产品角落察觉技术。规模产品功能在不同规模从轮廓的弯曲产品被导出。角落被 thresholding 作为本地最大值构造越过几规模的弯曲产品结果。通过规模产品，本地化精确性和察觉表演能显著地以 CNN 标准被改进。实验也证明那个建议方法显示出坚韧性到高频率细节并且提供有希望的察觉结果。