Water diversion and agricultural production:Evidence from China

Water diversion can alleviate water shortages caused by the uneven distribution of water resources.China’s Southto-North Water Diversion Project(SNWD)is the largest water diversion project worldwide.Based on the prefecturelevel data of China’s Huang-Huai-Hai Plain from 2000 to 2020,this study employs an empirical strategy of Differencesin-Differences(DID)to analyze the impact of SNWD on agricultural production.The results show that SNWD has significantly increased agricultural production,measured by the agricultural value added.The estimated results of the benchmark model remain robust when the contemporaneous policy is addressed,an alternative outcome is used,subsamples are estimated,and alternative estimation techniques are employed.This study argues that the potential impact mechanism may be that SNWD significantly increases the acreage for cash crops but reduces that for grain crops.Heterogeneity analysis shows that in prefectures with high temperature or land potential,SNWD’s impact on agricultural value added is relatively low.In contrast,in areas with prolonged sunshine or high slopes,SNWD’s impact on agricultural value added is relatively large.Given the low added value of grain crops,the government should consider strengthening food security by subsidizing water supply to sustain grain production.

Realistic Significance and Practical Exploration of Cultivating New Professional Farmers in China

Firstly, the background, ways, countermeasures, problems and realistic significance of cultivating new professional farmers in China were studied, and then the mechanism for cultivating new professional farmers was discussed based on Town S. The results show that cultivating new professional farmers can fundamentally relieve "three rural issues" existing for a long time and is of great significance to rural economic development. For instance, it can integrate rural human capital and release modern productivity, increase farmers' income and improve rural economy, increase land utilization and output per unit area, and break through the bottlenecks during agricultural development to realize agricultural modernization. According to the case study of Town S, during the process of cultivating new professional farmers, governments at all levels ought to adopt many effective measures and strengthen support to realize cultivation targets planed early.

The contribution of cooperative irrigation scheme to poverty reduction in Tanzania

Irrigation system is a scare resource in most of drought-stricken Africa.How to manage and maintain the existing irrigation facilities in Africa is a debatable issue to both policy makers and beneficiaries.Irrigation facilities run by farmer cooperatives are considered ineffective,unsuccessful and dysfunctional in Tanzania by many researchers.A cooperative irrigation scheme is a mechanism that features the collective management of rural irrigation facilities by farmers'cooperative with some government intervention and external support.There is an increasing emphasis on the roles of cooperative irrigation scheme in the development of the agriculture sector and poverty reduction of smallholder farmers.In this study,the authors investigated the management and services of this scheme and analyzed its contribution to poverty reduction of smallholder rice farmers and community development in Tanzania through both quantitative and qualitative methods.The results showed that the scheme helped smallholder farmers increase the rice production and brought better market opportunities.The farmers'net income was also increased.Profit generated from rice farming not only improved the livelihoods of smallholder farmers but also created more employment opportunities in the rural communities.The research also revealed that the scheme was faced with a number of challenges due to resource and institutional constraints and low-level human capacity for both management and members.The research provides a feasible approach to effective management of small-scale agricultural infrastructure for poverty reduction in Africa.

Mapping of wheat stripe rust resistance gene Yr041133 by BSR-Seq analysis

Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. tritici(Pst) pathotype CYR34 is widely virulent and prevalent in China.Here, we report identification of a strpie rust resistance(Yr) gene, designated Yr041133, in winter wheat line 041133. This line produced a hypersensitive reaction to CYR34 and conferred resistance to 13 other pathotypes. Resistance to CYR34 in line 041133 was controlled by a single dominant gene. Bulked segregant RNA sequencing(BSR-Seq) was performed on a pair of RNA bulks generated by pooling resistant and susceptible recombinant inbred lines. Yr041133 was mapped to a 1.7 c M genetic interval on the chromosome arm 7 BL that corresponded to a 0.8 Mb physical interval(608.9–609.7 Mb) in the Chinese Spring reference genome. Based on its unique physical location Yr041133 differred from the other Yr genes on this chromosome arm.

Gender Relations in Kjell Askildsen’s A Lovely Place From the Perspective of Chinese Yin-Yang Theory

A Lovely Place(2019)is a collection of the Norwegian writer Kjell Askildsen’s short stories that is translated from German into Chinese by Yang Zhizi.It contains 18 short stories,whose male characters are mainly analyzed by researchers.The paper argues that female characters are playing an indispensable role in compensating the males’life stories and enlightening their worldviews according to Chinese Yin-Yang theory.The females can be classified into the following three groups in terms of their important relations to the males.Firstly,the female is the male’s companion in a certain part of the latter’s life.Secondly,the female facilitates the male’s intellectual growth either spontaneously or purposefully.Thirdly,the female struggles for independence to set an example for the male.The female characters in A Lovely Place present such femininity as beauty,energy,nostalgia,sentimentality,motherhood,etc.,stimulate the males to reflect on their own identities and fulfill their muscularity,and function as the genuine protagonists in the collection as far as the gender relations are concerned.

Poverty Alleviation Practice and Theoretical Exploration Based on Small-Farm Household Production: A Case Study of a Small-farm “NestedMarket” Poverty Alleviation Trial

Market-oriented industry-type poverty alleviation has played an important role in targeted poverty alleviation in China, but this approach has had difficulty in obtaining comprehensive coverage of extremely poor small-farm households and faces many challenges. We therefore need to explore and innovate a variety of ways of alleviating poverty among poor small-farm households. A project for 'poverty alleviation through nested market small-farm production' has been running for eight years in the villages of Taihang Mountains, Hebei Province. It started from the livelihood resources already possessed by small-farm households, then converted farm production of healthy agricultural products and local specialties into an 'industry' that took ordinary urban consumers’ demand for healthy foods as the corresponding exit point and nested markets as the organizational form of transaction and interaction. The trial shows that mutual trust and participation between the rural poor and the urban population has successfully transformed poor households’ livelihood resources and social capital into income, achieving accurate, stable and sustainable poverty alleviation and highlighting the concepts of innovation, coordination, and green and shared development.

An ecohealth assessment of poultry production clusters (PPCs) for the livelihood and biosecurity improvement of small poultry producers in Asia

Background:Poultry production cluster(PPC)programs are key strategies in many Asian countries to engage small commercial poultry producers in high-value production chains and to control infectious poultry diseases.This study assessed the multiple impacts of PPCs through a transdisciplinary ecohealth approach in four Asian countries,and drew the implications for small producers to improve their livelihoods and reduce the risk of spreading infectious diseases in the poultry sector.Methods:The data collection combined both quantitative and qualitative methods.It comprised:formal structured household survey questionnaires,measuring the biosecurity level of poultry farms with a biosecurity score card;and key informant interviews.Descriptive statistics were used to process the quantitative data and a content analysis was used to process the qualitative data.Results:This research found that poultry farms in clusters do not necessarily have better economic performance than those outside PPCs.Many farmers in PPCs only consider them to be an advantage for expanding the scale of their poultry operations and improving household incomes,and they are less concerned about-and have limited capacities to-enhancing biosecurity and environmental management.We measured the biosecurity level of farms in PPCs through a 14-item checklist and found that biosecurity is generally very low across all sample sites.The increased flies,mosquitoes,rats,and smells in and around PPCs not only pollute the environment,but also cause social conflicts with the surrounding communities.Conclusion:This research concluded that a poultry cluster,mainly driven by economic objectives,is not necessarily a superior model for the control of infectious diseases.The level of biosecurity in PPCs was found to be low.Given the intensity of poultry operations in PPCs(farms are densely packed into clusters),and the close proximity to residential areas of some PPCs,the risk of spreading infectious diseases,in fact,increases.Good management and collective action for implementing biosecurity measures are key for small producers in PPCs to address common challenges and pursue health-based animal production practices.

Model Farm Services Center Approach: An Implication to Boost Farmer’s Yield

The instant study was conducted to estimate the Model Farm Services Center’s (MFSC) contribution in yield improvement of major crops/vegetables in district Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, during the year 2014-15. Based on Sekaran sampling technique 306 respondents were selected and were personally interviewed through well prepared and pre-tested interview schedule. To find out the actual performance of yield improvement by Model Farm Services Center along with other repressors, step by step analysis was performed. The results of Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test showed significant improvement in yield of sugarcane, wheat, maize, rice and tomato by Model Farm Services Center. Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed highly significant positive relation of sugarcane and wheat yield difference before and after Model Farm Services Center registration with MFSC. Ordinary Least Square Multiple-Regression Model indicates that MFSC registration duration and landholding significantly define the variation in dependent variables at 1% and 5% level of significance respectively for sugarcane yield. Whereas solely Model Farm Services Center registration duration profoundly highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) explains the variation in dependent variables in wheat yield.

Determinants of Household Income Mobility in Rural China

This article uses multivariate regression and decomposition analyses to assess household income mobility determinants and their contributions to income mobility in rural China from 1989 to 2006. The findings indicate that households with lower initial income level, higher share of wage income, higher educational level of household members, larger number of non-agricultural employed household members and younger heads are more mobile. Moreover, besides initial income, change in the share of wage income, change in the share of non-agricultural employed household members, and change in average year of education of household members are the most important factors that account for income mobility. These findings necessitate more emphasis on policies that promote non-agricultural employment and education to enhance household income mobility in rural China.

Transcending Existing Traditions of Sociology--A Review of Fei Xiaotong＇s Reflections on Sociological Method in His Old Age

In his old age, Fei Xiaotong＇s reflections on Chinese sociological method opened up new room for transcending the existing traditions of sociology. His spiritual legacy is well worth further explanation. According to Fei, traditional Chinese culture and wisdom embodies a wealth of concepts, such as ＂harmony between nature and man,＂ ＂mind for others＂ and so on, all of which need further definition and should he used as fulcrums for the transcending of sociological traditions.

Schools' Flood Emergency Preparedness in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan

Pakistan is highly exposed to climate-induced disasters, especially floods. Flooding history shows that educational establishments have been disproportionately hard-hit by flooding events. In Pakistan, school safety and preparedness is still a choice, rather than a mandatory requirement for all schools. But schools in Pakistan do have a responsibility to keep safe the students in their care,especially during and after the catastrophic events. This implies the need to maintain the environment in and around school property, so as to minimize the impacts of floods and to have the mechanisms in place to maximize a school's resilience. This study examined the emergency preparedness activities of 20 schools in four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province that had recently been severely affected by floods. Through face to face interviews and a structured questionnaire(n = 100) we collected data on the four pillars of emergency preparedness:emergency planning, preparation measures, safe school facilities, and hazard education and training. The study revealed that the majority of the sample schools hadexperienced more than one natural hazard-induced disaster,predominantly flooding, yet despite this had not undertaken adequate emergency preparedness activities. There are particular gaps with regard to plans for students with disabilities, the continuity of school operations after a disaster,the presence of maps to identify evacuation routes, the availability of emergency equipment and resources, disaster preparedness guidelines, and psychological first aid and crisis counseling. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,and threats analysis that our researchers carried out indicates that, although schools in the survey have taken many steps towards flood preparedness, many weaknesses still exist and there remain significant opportunities to strengthen the preparedness level of many schools. The goal of this study is to inform policy decisions that improve school safety in Pakistan and to suggest the priority areas for future school disaster preparedness and management efforts.