University of Minnesota, Duluth
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Determinants of Consumer Choice of Dairy Products
No full textDairy products play a vital role in every individual of the Indian country. Everyone may consume the dairy knowingly and unknowingly in different ways and in different consistency like solid, semi-solid and liquid forms. Despite the benefits of dairy products, their consumption has dropped over the past decade. It may be attributed to changes in consumer behavior and the low shelf life of fresh dairy. The main objective of this study is to analyze the factors that influence consumer preferences for dairy products. This study was conducted during the years 2020 to 2021 to find out the major objectives, and the data was collected from the 120 sample respondents through random sampling method during the months of November and December of 2020. Tools such as percentage analysis and factor analysis were used to analyse the factors influencing the consumers’ choice preferences of dairy products, and twenty-eight statements were used related to consumer choice. The factors influencing the consumer choice and preferences are emotional factor, nutrient factor, promotional, packaging factors, affordable price factor, conditional factor, taste factor, diet factor, social factor and self-motivational factor. Emotional and nutritional factors are the most influential components, explaining why people are most concerned about their health. It is highly important for increasing all the nutrients in the dairy product. This study provides useful information for dairy producers and marketers to frame strategies that align with evolving consumer preferences. Understanding key influencing factors enables stakeholders to enhance product formulation, packaging, and promotional efforts to attract and retain consumers
Digital Agriculture and Information and Communication Technology for Ensuring Sustainable Development in India: A Review
No full textIndia is described as an agricultural powerhouse on a global scale due to its vast agri-ecological diversity. Even though attaining food adequacy in production, India still faces issues related resource-intensive agriculture and less farmer productivity, raising poverty and malnutrition. The involvement of information and communication technology (ICT) in evolving agriculture has become even more essential. It assists farmers with timely information related to environmental conditions, soil health, and crop management and beyond it, where it has the potential to stimulate growth in agricultural productivity and promote sustainable farming through informed decision-making and resource management. This paper reviews the relevance of ICTs in farming for rural development, food security, and resilience. Newer technologies such as 5G, AI, and cloud computing provide exciting new possibilities to explore for a robust vision for Indian agriculture that is organised, data-oriented, and productive.
It can stimulate economic development through improved access to markets and knowledge sharing, with ICT playing an important role in supporting rural communities. However, challenges such as limited connectivity and low digital literacy must be addressed to facilitate widespread adoption of ICTs. ICT in agriculture draws parallels to the "Third Green Revolution," where there is a need to strive towards more affirmative inclusion of small farm households and women, especially amongst developing countries. Enhancing the agenda of sustainability through ICT and sustainable practices will be a major strategy in creating ecological balance, environmental health, and resilience for agricultural systems for the future
The Role of Local Cuisine: Building Nutritional Adequacy and Food Security of Indigenous Communities
No full textIndia, one of the 12 mega-biodiversity countries, hosts a rich diversity of traditional and wild foods. The indigenous knowledge of these foods is vital for sustaining their utilization and enhancing sustainable nutrition security. However, tribal communities face significant challenges, including malnutrition driven by poor food and nutrition outcomes, limited access to water, health and sanitation services, income poverty, and gaps in nutrition security. Modernization and settled agriculture have shifted tribal diets toward processed foods, reducing indigenous diet diversity, weakening nutrition, and increasing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. This nutrition transition, combined with sedentary lifestyles, has led to underutilization of more than half of traditional food resources. Addressing these challenges requires direct nutrition interventions and multi-sectoral approaches that integrate food security, health, and poverty reduction strategies. Effective interventions should utilize locally available resources, build pride in cultural food systems, strengthen community capacity, and foster inter-project communication. Supportive policies, infrastructure development, poverty alleviation programs, and active community organizations are essential for success. Future strategies should focus on developing nutrition gardens, conserving biodiversity, documenting indigenous knowledge, and promoting community biodiversity management. Strengthening in-situ and ex-situ conservation, encouraging transdisciplinary research, and offering fellowships to attract researchers will further enhance impact. Reviving traditional food systems and mainstreaming them into dietary diversification and supplementary feeding programs can improve tribal nutrition security, contribute to biodiversity conservation, and preserve cultural heritage. Such actions align strongly with SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and broader sustainable development goals, fostering both nutritional resilience and cultural preservation
Women's Participation in Climate-resilient Homestead Gardening in Bangladesh’s Haor Region: A Localised Pathway to Achieving SDGs 2, 5, and 13
No full textClimate-resilient homestead gardening is one effective approach that enables rural households, particularly women, to sustain food production throughout the year by applying flexible methods suited to shifting environmental challenges. In rural Bangladesh, homestead gardening typically includes growing vegetables, fruits, and medicinal herbs in the spaces surrounding the household. This study explores women’s participation in climate-resilient homestead vegetable cultivation in the haor region of Bangladesh, emphasising its potential to address Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG 13 (Climate Action). Conducted in six unions of Tahirpur Upazila in Sunamganj District, a total of 100 women were randomly selected as the sample for the study from a population of 250 farmers who were interviewed using a pre-tested interview schedule from November to December 2024. Data were analysed using SPSS software-2025 version and MS Excel. Findings revealed that 44% of women demonstrated a high level of participation in climate-resilient gardening, 37% participated moderately, and 19% had low involvement. Key factors to consider in homestead vegetable cultivation included cultivating vegetables based on household nutritional needs (90%), maintaining multiple seedbeds (89%), using clean water and fertile soil (87%), ensuring proper sunlight and air circulation (86%) and applying organic compost (84%). However, practices like avoiding sowing during extreme conditions (45%) and timely planting (52%) showed lower adoption. Constraints such as lack of irrigation (ranked 1st), time scarcity due to domestic work (2nd), and limited access to quality inputs (3rd) were predominantly reported. Correlation analysis revealed that farming experience (r = 0.730, p < 0.01), extension media contact (r = 0.767, p < 0.01), and family size (r = 0.258, p < 0.05) were significantly associated with participation level, while variables like age, education, marital status, land size, occupation and training were not. This finding underscores the critical role of experimental knowledge, information access and household capacity in enabling climate-adaptive practices. The study highlights the value of supporting women-led homestead gardening through training and extension programs to build resilience in climate-vulnerable regions. By strengthening extension services, enhancing training and integrating gender-sensitive strategies, policymakers and development agencies can scale these practices to build more inclusive, resilient and food-secure rural communities
Adoption of Agricultural Water Management Practices among Smallholder Farmers in Rongai Sub-County, Kenya
No full textAgricultural water management refers to the planning, development, distribution, and efficient use of water resources for agricultural purposes. Effective agricultural water management is vital for sustainable farming, especially in the face of climate change and increasing demand for food. It requires a combination of technological, ecological, and policy solutions tailored to specific regions and farming systems. Agricultural water management practices include rainwater harvesting, irrigation, soil moisture conservation, and use of drop resistant crops. Adoption of these practices can be affected by factors such as socio economic, institutional, environmental and cultural factors. This study examined the level of adoption of agricultural water management practices among smallholder farmers in Rongai Sub-county Kenya. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted, while proportionate and simple random sampling techniques were used to obtain the respondents. The accessible population was 6,230 smallholder farmers from the target population of 26,804 smallholder farmers in Rongai sub county Kenya. The study was done in August 2023 to November 2023 and included 120 smallholder farmers in Rongai Sub County. A questionnaire was used to collect data, while descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings of this study indicates that adoption of agricultural water management practices is low, being at 35.8% since 64.2% of the farmers did not adopt the practices. This low adoption may be associated with low income and lack of access to extension services in Rongai sub-county. The findings may help in improving adoption of agricultural water management by creating awareness about the practices, training smallholder farmers and advocating for supportive policies through collaborative engagement between local government and agricultural organizations
Small-scale Agriculture, Women’s Empowerment, and Food Security: A Review of the Coastal Belt of Bangladesh
No full textSmall-scale agriculture is a cornerstone of livelihoods in Bangladesh’s climate-sensitive coastal belt, where women contribute substantially to production, processing, and market engagement. This study investigates how climate stressors, gender dynamics, and institutional constraints shape women’s empowerment and food security in coastal rural communities. Using mixed methods including household surveys, field trials, and literature synthesis across coastal regions of Bangladesh; we examine adaptive strategies, labor patterns, land access, technology adoption, and market participation. Results show that 50% of farmers use organic fertilizers, 42% cultivate climate-resilient crops, and 25% practice integrated cropping. Women’s engagement in paid work and migration increases household agency but entails social stigma and double workloads; they perform 7.6 times more household chores and 6 times more caregiving than men. Women’s land ownership remains limited (10–13%), and adoption of saline-tolerant varieties, despite 1–2 t/ha yield gains, is low due to extension and knowledge gaps. In fisheries and aquaculture, 1.4 million women participate in post-harvest activities, yet only 10% enter formal value chains. These findings highlight that climate adaptation, gender equity, and inclusive market access are interlinked drivers of resilient agriculture. Policies fostering women’s land rights, extension services, and value chain integration can strengthen empowerment and food security in coastal Bangladesh
Effectiveness of Using ICT Tools for Disseminating Rice Production Information among the Farmers of Bangladesh
No full textThe study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of using ICT tools for disseminating rice production information, to compare among the ICT tools and to explore the contribution of the selected characteristics of the farmers to their use of ICT tools. Data were collected from 340 rice farmers from a population of 2988 from four (4) selected upazillas of Bangladesh. Findings revealed that half of the farmers (50%) perceived moderate effective while 46.5 % and 3.5 % perceived high and low effectiveness of the ICT tools for disseminating rice production information. Based on the descending order of Standardized Effectiveness Index (SEIty) among the ICT tools ‘call center’ ranked first followed by ‘social media’, ‘mobile application’ and ‘internet browsing’. The multiple regression analysis showed that ICT using experience, ICT contact, knowledge of using ICT tools, and attitude towards using ICT tools had significant positive contribution to their perceived effectiveness of using ICT tools for dissemination rice production information. The findings may contribute in policy formulation for improving agricultural extension services and promoting digital agriculture in Bangladesh
Modeling Crop Rotations Under Risk in Order to Maximize Grower Returns
No full textCrop enterprise(s) selection is one of the most critical decisions growers face. Growers have preferred outcomes but must account for its statistical probability in achieving those preferred outcomes given their resource endowment subject to prevailing market conditions and other variables while seeking to minimize risk in such decisions. Traditionally, risk can come from either variability in yields, market prices, and production input costs requisite to the cultivation of each crop enterprise. To analyze risk and its impact on crop enterprise selection, four representative farms were established
within Louisiana and Arkansas to evaluate net return variability among alternative crop enterprises and rice cultivar selection using regionally specific stochastic efficiency criterion. The aim of this study is to evaluate which crop enterprise choice(s), within both continuous and rotational management strategies, best maximizes grower profitability over alternative rice cultivar and crop enterprise selections subject to a prescribed range of risk aversion levels
Economic Importance of Inland Waterways to U.S. Agriculture (2026)
No full textThis report quantifies some of the contributions of the U.S. inland waterways by measuring the economic impact of the inland waterway transportation services industry, as well as the agricultural industries utilizing these waterways to bring goods to export. This report serves as an update and enhancement of the previous Importance of Inland Waterways to U.S. Agriculture report, published in 2019. This report considers several of the same agricultural commodities included in the 2019 study (namely corn and soybeans) but adds analyses of wheat, rice, and sorghum grain. Furthermore, States not previously considered in the 2019 study have been added to this analysis: Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington. Similar to the 2019 report, the report used updated data to model economic impacts from investment scenarios under varying levels of funding as well as State-level economic impacts for 19 States. New to the 2026 report, this report incorporates stakeholder feedback to help identify the economic impact of U.S. inland waterways as well as opportunities for improvement. Waterways included in this study: Upper Mississippi River, Illinois River, Lower Mississippi River, McClellen-Kerr Arkansas River (MKARNS), Ohio River, Columbia River, Snake River, and the Tennessee River
Agricultural Economics Literature (Volume 10)
No full textIssue features include: Signed Reviews – Descriptive Notes and Abstracts – Selected List of Recent Reviews – Translation – Bibliographies – U.S. Resettlement Administration – State Publications – U. S. Department of Agriculture Publications, Economic in Nature – New Periodicals – Periodical Articles – Notes. Book reviews included: Economic Aspects of Australian Land Taxation (J. M. Garland) --- Family Expenditure; A Study of Its Variation (R. G. D. Allen & A. L. Bowley) --- Labour in Agriculture; An International Survey (Lady Louise E. Howard) --- International Combines in Modern Industry (Alfred Plummer) --- Das Reichserbhofrecht; eine systematische gesetzeserlauterung (Paul Gϋlland) --- Land-Reclamation in Italy; Rural Revival in the Building of a Nation (Cesare Longobardi) --- The Cattlemen's Frontier; A Record of the Trans-Mississippi Cattle Industry from Oxen Trains to Pooling Companies, 1850-1890 (Louis Pelzer) --- The Social History of American Agriculture (Joseph Schafer)