1,721,037 research outputs found
The impact of recapitalization and development program on the performance of land reform farmers in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Land reform is and has been one of the South African development initiatives. The desire to
see agriculture as the core of the transformation for the previously disadvantaged citizens and
as a vehicle for improving the socio-economic status and rural economy cannot be ignored.
Research on land settlement operation across countries that have experienced land reform
indicates that land reform without post-settlement support regardless of the historical
background of the proposed beneficiaries or even political appraisal leads to the neglect of the
awarded land. The presence of effective farmer support services promotes the development of
the land reform farms whilst the opposite may contribute negatively to on-farm development
and affect the livelihoods and food security of the people that rely on the farm. There is no
doubt that the current land ownership patterns are unsustainable and are a threat to national
democracy. Therefore, the need to provide appropriate post-settlement support to farmers’
farms cannot be ignored to help the few farmers retain the farms. It is for this reason that the
recapitalization program was initiated.
This study aims to determine the impact of recapitalization and development on the
performance of land reform farmers. The study made use of a quantitative approach and
adopted the multistage sampling techniques: stratified random sampling and random sampling
procedure to select the land reform farmers that participated in the study (n =264). Descriptive
statistics were used to assess the socio-economic status of the land reform beneficiaries.
Econometric analysis was also used through Probit regression analysis to assess the factors
influencing the participation of farmers in the Recapitalization and Development Program
(RADP), and the Endogenous switching regression model to assess the impact of RADP on the
performance of land reform farmers.
The primary findings indicated that respondents are on average 49 years old and that around
80% of the sampled farmers are married. While approximately 64% of farmers engaged in nonfarm
economic activity, the average household has approximately five people. Similarly, the
number of years spent cultivating crops (a proxy for experience) is projected to have a
favourable effect on participation in the RADP and on net farm revenue. Around 70% of
respondents reported having a signed contract. These findings indicated that while 58% had
access to extension services from both the private and public sector contributing to the progress
of agricultural development with 54% of strategic partnership support, and mentorship was
indicated to be 44%. Tax compliance (p=0.022), secondary organization (p=0.0257, legal entity
(p=0.008), farm potential income upon acquisition (p=0.084), farmers getting third-party
support (p=0.071), and strategic partnership (p=0.081) all had a statistically significant effect
on farmers' RADP participation.
The findings indicated that age (p=0.029), farm potential income upon acquisition (p=0.088),
strategic partnership (p=0.049), and tax compliance (p=0.002) were all positively significant
with the impact of RADP on land reform performance. The impact of RADP on the
performance of non-RADP recipients was statistically significant for strategic partnerships
(p=0.059), legal entities (p=0.019), and farmers receiving third party support (p=0.095).
Strategic partnership (p=0.021) and tax compliance (p=0.010) had a statistically significant
effect on RADP beneficiaries' performance.
The results showed that land reform has made a progress in ensuing a positive livelihood of
beneficiaries even though some challenges are still experienced. Findings showed that the
majority of farmers were engaged in off-farm economic activities, access to formal education
and have signed a project contract. Mentorship remained a particularly difficult aspect of postsettlement
life. However, farmers got a chance to enhance their farms and raise their income
through RADP's strategic cooperation. Generally, land reform farmers are full-time farmers
and get their income from farm profits. Access to extension services was satisfactory for land
reform farmers. The strategic partnership of RADP is likely to improve the farm and the farm
income. RADP generally has a positive impact on the performance of the land reform program.
There is a need to significantly improve the mentorship program to increase land reform
farmers' engagement in the given farmer support programs. It is recommended that more
extension services are availed to the land reform farmers
Environmental management of urban farming and water quality: implications for food security.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Urban farming, in its small scale comprises of various production systems and practices that
can lead to poor soil conditions, water pollution and the extension of climate change impacts.
Moreover, smallholder farmers are in turn challenged by climate change impacts including
heavy rainfall, high temperatures, hailstorms and pests exacerbated by the lack of knowledge,
institutional support, governance framework, limited financial resources and technology. As a
result, farmers are vulnerable to urban farming and environmental risks that affect the farmers’
food and nutrition security. On the other hand, if done well, urban farming (UF) can benefit the
urban environment through flood water mitigation, water infiltration and greening of the
environment, while improving food security. The study was conducted in the communities of
Sobantu, Sweetwaters and Mpophomeni, in KwaZulu-Natal. This study employed a mixedmethods
research approach, which combines quantitative and qualitative analysis. The
quantitative approach used a survey questionnaire to elicit responses from 78 urban and
periurban smallholder farmers who were purposefully selected to participate in the study. Focus
group discussions and field observations were used to collect in-depth qualitative data about
the challenges urban farmers faced in urban farming. Additionally, the logit regression model
was used to identify factors that influence the farmers adoption of urban farming management
practices. The study revealed that the majority of the farmers were faced with environmental
problems including poor soil conditions, water quality and access problems and climate change
impacts, of which had an impact on crop yield and farm profit. Furthermore, results showed
that 69.2% of farmers were aware of the environmental implications of urban farming.
However, it was found that due to the farmers limited financial resources, farmers identified
urban farming mainly as a source of income and a strategy to obtain extra food and less for the
benefit of the environment. The study found that market availability (p=0.003), training on soil
management (p=0.0011) and access to credit (p=0.097) were significant factors in the adoption
of urban farming practices. The study further revealed that the farmers adoption of urban
farming and water quality management practices were challenged by socio-economic and
institutional factors such as the lack of knowledge, farmer training, access to markets, access
to credit and poor extension support. An environmental management framework was provided
to address the challenges that hinder the smallholder farmers adoption of urban farming and
water quality management practices.Authour's Keywords: urban farming, environmental management, food security, climate change
impacts
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
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
Knowledge And Attitudes Towards Non-Communicable Diseases (ncd) Amongst Village Health Teams (vht) In Iganga And Mayuge Districts, Uganda.
Full text linkBackground: Community health workers (CHW) have successfully contributed to prevention, management and care for NCD interventions in several low and middle income countries (LMIC). In Uganda, the CHW, known as Village Health Teams (VHT) are the initial point of care in their communities. Though their present roles only attend to infectious diseases, maternal and child health issues, their skills could potentially be utilized in national efforts to promote NCD prevention in communities.
Aim: To assess baseline knowledge of and attitudes toward NCD and NCD care among VHT in Uganda as a step towards identifying a potential role for VHT in community NCD prevention and management.
Design: A knowledge, attitudes and practices questionnaire was distributed to 68 active VHT workers from Iganga and Mayuge districts, Uganda. In addition, four focus group discussions were conducted with these VHT workers (n=33). Discussions focused on NCD knowledge, current experience with NCD, and barriers and facilitators to incorporating NCD care into their role as community VHT. A thematic qualitative analysis was conducted to identify salient themes in the data.
Results: VHT possessed some knowledge and awareness of NCD but identified a lack of knowledge about NCDs in their communities. VHT were enthusiastic about incorporating NCD care into their role and thought that they could serve as effective conduits of knowledge about NCD to their communities, if empowered through NCD education, the availability of proper reporting and referral tools, and visible collaborations with medical personnel. Current barriers to their participation in NCD care included lack of VHT education on NCD, lack of assistance/supervision from medical personnel, lack of medical services, medication, equipment and personnel and lack of VHT regard from community.
Conclusion: Ugandan VHT already possess some nuanced knowledge about NCD and their risk behaviors. With context-specific and culturally adapted training, VHT want to and could play a role in spreading community awareness of NCD and reporting and referral of community members for NCD screening
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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