1,720,956 research outputs found
Sustainable land reform and its impact on agricultural productivity and rural development in South Africa
Full text linkThe issue of land continues to be pivotal in Southern Africa, reflecting the lasting effects of historical land dispossession from the colonial and apartheid periods. This study analyses the effects of sustainable land reform on agricultural productivity and rural development in South Africa, emphasising the connections among land redistribution, economic empowerment, and environmental sustainability. The study utilises a systematic literature review alongside grey literature, incorporating government reports and publications from international organisations. Thematic analysis was employed to identify, analyse, and report patterns. The findings underscore the necessity of enhancing land tenure systems, increasing resource accessibility, and delivering sufficient support for agricultural development. Recommendations focus on improving small-scale agriculture via climate-smart practices and promoting financial inclusion. This paper advances the land reform discourse by presenting a policy framework that combines sustainable agricultural practices with land redistribution, thereby securing enduring economic and environmental advantages. The primary contribution is the provision of actionable recommendations that incorporate sustainability into land reform, thereby promoting inclusive rural development
Leveraging sustainable food systems for achieving Sustainable Development Goals: An overview
Full text linkSustainable food systems are essential for achieving numerous Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in securing food availability, enhancing nutrition, and fostering sustainable agriculture, while also aiding in other SDGs such as poverty alleviation, promoting health and well-being, encouraging responsible consumption, and addressing climate change. Discussions about both Sustainable Development Goals and the sustainability of food systems are ongoing. This article engages with these discussions by investigating the link between the Sustainable Development Goals and food systems, and analysing how food systems might be prioritised as essential for attaining the SDGs. Supported by a secondary literature assessment, the article demonstrated that food security is essential for sustainable development, influencing many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Numerous Sustainable Development Goals will be realised when individuals have access to sufficient nutritious food. The conclusion is that recognising the intersections and interrelations between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and food systems, along with implementing transformative measures that empower stakeholders along the food supply chain, will enhance governments\u27 prospects of achieving the SDGs
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Economic contribution of backyard gardens in alleviating poverty in the rural communities of Bojanala Platinum district municipality, in North West Province, South Africa
Full text linkBackyard gardens has been identified as one of the possible solutions to some of the issues surrounding poverty alleviation in the Bojanala Platinum District Municipality. The main objective of the study was to determine the economic contribution of backyard gardens in alleviation of poverty in rural communities of Bojanala Platinum District Municipality in the North West Province, South Africa. The study used purposive sampling for data collection from the study respondents which enabled the researcher to select a sample with experience and knowledge about the study variables. The questionnaire used as data collection instrument was pretested, validated and subjected to reliability test to improve the efficiency of the use of the questionnaire. The collected data was sorted, coded and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 23.0 software. Frequency count and percentage were used to summarize the data into tables and graphs. The linear multiple regression model specification was employed to examine the demographic and socio-economic factors (predictors) that influence the generation of income from backyard gardens. Multinomial logistics regression model was also used to determine factors influencing the respondents’ objectives for the Backyard gardens, while the logit regression model was used to analyse determinants of the proportion of backyard land used for backyard farming by respondents/growers.
The findings of the study are that: more females (68.2%) were involved in the study than males (31.8%); youth involved in the study were 27.7%; the majority (60.4%) of respondents are in the age group of 41-70 years of age; majority (69.5%) of respondents had matric education, 20.9% had tertiary education, and 3.6% had below matric education whilst 5.9% had no formal education; most of respondents are unemployed (86.6%); 32.2% of respondents are dependent on pension as their source of income, 12.3% depend on grant, 15% depend on monthly salaries, 0.5% depend on investments, 2.3% depend on remittance, and 18.6% depend on piece jobs, whilst 19.1% reported other source of income; majority (99%) of respondents reported that backyard garden contribute a significant proportion to both household income and food security, whilst 1.0% did not agree; 40% of the respondents could not manage to farm the whole garden area, while 60% were able to farm the entire garden area; the majority (70.9%) of respondents provide own solutions to their backyard garden challenges; majority (53.7%) of respondents reported that extension officers never visited their gardens, whilst 46.3% had extension visits on weekly, monthly and quarterly bases; 23.2% of the respondents created permanent employment while 34.1% of them created seasonal employment.
The results of the OLS regression analysis showed that gender of respondents, with formal employment, ownership of a farm besides the Backyard garden (BYG) by respondent, farmers’ years of experience in farming and annual income from the sale of livestock by respondent had positive and statistically significant influence on the annual income from Backyard garden with all other factors held constant.
The results of the multinomial regression analyses show that a unit change in number of years involved in backyard gardening (YRSBG) does not significantly change the odds of being classified in the 4th category of the outcome variable (Produce to help the needy, the poor, to feed the orphans, and for home based-cares around their communities = 4) relative to the first or second or third categories of the outcome variable, while controlling for the influence of the others. On the other hand a unit change in being employed (EMPLO) and involved in non-farm activities (NFA) do significantly change the odds of being classified in the 4th category of the outcome variable relative to the second or third categories of the outcome variable, while controlling the influence of the others.
The Logit coefficient estimate associated with Age, Income per month from BYG, Engage in non-farm activities, Years of experience in gardening, Proportion of produce consumed, having a business plan, Own a farm besides BYG and to lease your backyard have statistically significant impact on respondents area of cultivation for BYG with other factors held constant. Policies to improve BYG in the district should be informed by the aforementioned variables from the results of the inferential analyses.M. Sc. (Agriculture)Agricultur
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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