1,721,140 research outputs found
Choosing and integrating new crops and products
No full textOlson, Kent D.. (1987). Choosing and integrating new crops and products. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/202612
A comparative profitability analysis of organic and conventional farms in Emilia-Romagna and in Minnesota
No full textRecent discussion surrounding organic agriculture (also referred to as organic farming) has turned from just whether it represents a viable alternative to conventional agriculture to whether it would be adopted by a significant percentage of farmers. After a beginning phase in which the adoption was mainly due to an ethically based choice of the farmer, the success in the market and the increasing demand for organic products are increasing the number of farmers converting their farming system. Despite the continuing importance of non-economic factors and the uncertainty given by short-term and mid-term fluctuations of prices, a decisive point is whether the conversion to organic farming may be worthwhile from an economic perspective. The aim of the paper is to compare the actual profitability of farms using organic production methods to those farms using conventional production methods. The analysis will be based on several data-sets, provided on the Italian side by Emilia-Romagna Region, Italian National Institute of Agricultural Economics (INEA), Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat), and on the US side by the Center for Farm Financial Management (CFFM) in the Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota
Farmers' awareness and use of IPM for soybean aphid control
Full text linkIn response to the introduction and rapid spread of soybean aphid as a major new invasive pest of soybean in North America. A multi-state project, Soybean Aphid in the North Central US: Implementing IPM on a Landscape Scale, was initiated to help transition the North Central US soybean industry to a sustainable and ecologically-based IPM system for soybean aphid. In the first of a series of annual surveys designed to track changes in IPM implementation and adoption over time, 742 farmers in Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota were surveyed in early 2005. Thirteen percent of the farmers indicated they had treated for soybean aphid in 2004, and they had treated an average of 50% of their soybean acreage. Overall, the farmers showed a fairly good understanding of soybean aphids and their impact on soybeans. Seventy-five percent said aphids damaged their soybeans by sucking sap. Seventy-seven percent said the frequency with which aphids should be treated for profitable control depends on aphid counts, weather conditions, and plant stage. Thirty-seven percent believed that aphids can inflict significant damage at any growth stage; 29% believed that aphids inflict the most yield damage during early flowering through pods set (R1-R3). Sixty-six percent considered the lowest average aphid density for profitable insecticide spraying to be 250 aphids per plant. Over all three states, 84% of the farmers said the most important information for making a decision to treat soybean aphids was scouting reports; 54% said plant growth stage was very important in their decision.Originating text in English.Citation: Olson, Kent D. (2005). Farmers' awareness and use of IPM for soybean aphid control. University of Minnesota: St. Paul, MN
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
Investigating Preferences for Environment Friendly Production Practices. Taste segments for organic and integrated crop management potatoes in Italian households
No full textThis paper reports some preliminary results on a mixed logit random utility analysis
of conjoint data from consumers’ preferences for agricultural products. The data were
collected via a telematic sample representative of Italian households. The survey
instrument was implemented via a computer supported system. A multivariate normal
full correlation structure is imposed in the mixed logit estimation and the implications of
such a taste structure are examined
Organic Food. Consumers 'Choices and Farmers' Opportunities
No full textConsumers’ attention to food safety issues and environmental issues has increased overwhelmingly in recent decades because of their increased concern about their own health, the environment’s health, and the crises and emergencies reported worldwide. Once the only option, organic agriculture has always been a production option followed by at least a few farmers all over the world. These farmers were prompted by ethical and environmental motivations, as well as by committed consumers who supported organic agriculture thanks to a separate but fairly elitist distribution channel. Organic food now has become a viable alternative for an increasing number of consumers that are worried about the presence of chemicals residues and the negative consequences on the environment caused by intensive production methods. Many farmers also now see organic farming as a way to stabilize or even increase their income due to public policy support and growing market demand.
Organic Food: Consumers' Choices and Farmers' Opportunities gives an overview of the organic sector, both in Italy and in the United States, and demonstrates how agricultural economists are performing analyses dealing with organic produce on different points in the supply chain. It deals with economic issues raised by organic farming and takes into account both the consumer's needs and the managerial and budget constraints experienced by the farmers. Also farm management methodologies and marketing analyses are used with specific research topics involving several industries in the agri-food sector
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
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