Livestock feed mix or feed choice decision-making is encountered by farmers in their daily operations. Livestock feed choice and mixing is emerging as a key research area considering the impact of climate change and emergence of new technology. Smallholder dairy farmers are usually capital constrained and hence a need to investigate cost-effective feed choice that maximises profit. A study to investigate the cost-effective feed among forage and browse legumes was conducted among smallholder dairy farmers in Zimbabwe. An optimisation problem was formulated with the objective of maximising profit by selecting the most cost-effective feed among forage and browse legumes. Secondary data are used to solve the optimisation problem by implementing the Jaya optimisation algorithm. Results show that grain crop silage is the best feed choice resulting in a maximum profit of $ 66.00 per day per farmer. Further research can be directed towards investigating the effect of combining the next best feed, quality hay, and grain crop silage for profit contribution.
{"title":"Cost-Effective Forage and Browse Legume Feed for Dairy Production: An Optimisation Approach Using Jaya Optimisation Algorithm","authors":"Godfrey Chagwiza","doi":"10.1155/2022/5838723","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/5838723","url":null,"abstract":"Livestock feed mix or feed choice decision-making is encountered by farmers in their daily operations. Livestock feed choice and mixing is emerging as a key research area considering the impact of climate change and emergence of new technology. Smallholder dairy farmers are usually capital constrained and hence a need to investigate cost-effective feed choice that maximises profit. A study to investigate the cost-effective feed among forage and browse legumes was conducted among smallholder dairy farmers in Zimbabwe. An optimisation problem was formulated with the objective of maximising profit by selecting the most cost-effective feed among forage and browse legumes. Secondary data are used to solve the optimisation problem by implementing the Jaya optimisation algorithm. Results show that grain crop silage is the best feed choice resulting in a maximum profit of $ 66.00 per day per farmer. Further research can be directed towards investigating the effect of combining the next best feed, quality hay, and grain crop silage for profit contribution.","PeriodicalId":30608,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Agriculture","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84165574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. K. Bidzakin, Osei Yeboah, I. Sugri, A. Graves, D. Awunyo-Vitor
High postharvest loss is one of the major challenges faced by farmers in many African countries in their efforts to achieve food and nutrition security. Several postharvest techniques have been developed and introduced to farmers aimed at reducing food losses. This study evaluated the economic viability of four such grain storage techniques using capital budgeting techniques. Two grain protectants were applied at recommended rates in three treatment combinations to jute sacks, PICS sacks, polytanks, and poly sacks at different treatment levels and at different discount rates. Under maize storage, the net present value of all treatments yielded positive net returns. The polytank technique proved to be the most economically viable storage technique, followed by PICS and then jute sacks. Under cowpea storage, polytank proved to be the most viable, followed by PICS. This is consistent under replacement chain method and equivalent annual annuity under the three different discount rates used. Cowpea is best stored in polytanks and PICS sacks. Polytank is recommended as the most economically viable storage technique for both maize and cowpea storage. PICS is also recommend for both maize and cowpea storage. However, jute sacks and poly sacks are not suitable for cowpea storage even under chemical treatment, especially under long-term storage (over 6 months). The choice of storage technique should consider the commodity under consideration.
{"title":"Economics of Bulk Storage Techniques: Maize and Cowpea Storage in Ghana","authors":"J. K. Bidzakin, Osei Yeboah, I. Sugri, A. Graves, D. Awunyo-Vitor","doi":"10.1155/2022/8953918","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8953918","url":null,"abstract":"High postharvest loss is one of the major challenges faced by farmers in many African countries in their efforts to achieve food and nutrition security. Several postharvest techniques have been developed and introduced to farmers aimed at reducing food losses. This study evaluated the economic viability of four such grain storage techniques using capital budgeting techniques. Two grain protectants were applied at recommended rates in three treatment combinations to jute sacks, PICS sacks, polytanks, and poly sacks at different treatment levels and at different discount rates. Under maize storage, the net present value of all treatments yielded positive net returns. The polytank technique proved to be the most economically viable storage technique, followed by PICS and then jute sacks. Under cowpea storage, polytank proved to be the most viable, followed by PICS. This is consistent under replacement chain method and equivalent annual annuity under the three different discount rates used. Cowpea is best stored in polytanks and PICS sacks. Polytank is recommended as the most economically viable storage technique for both maize and cowpea storage. PICS is also recommend for both maize and cowpea storage. However, jute sacks and poly sacks are not suitable for cowpea storage even under chemical treatment, especially under long-term storage (over 6 months). The choice of storage technique should consider the commodity under consideration.","PeriodicalId":30608,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Agriculture","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78146499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Like animals, plants customarily utilize cell surface-localized receptors to keep track of environmental stimuli, specifically by plasma membrane-associated receptor-like kinases (RLKs). In comparison to other organisms, plants own a variety of RLKs, which insinuates that ligand-receptor-facilitated molecular mechanisms regulate an array of processes during plant development. Here, we take up Arabidopsis receptor-like kinase 7 (RLK7), which shares the archetypal structure of transmembrane receptor kinases accompanied by a receptor-like ectodomain comprising of leucine-rich repeats (LRRs) along with a functional intracellular kinase domain. Interestingly, this distinctive receptor-like kinase not only orchestrates crucial steps during plant development, including the regulation of seed longevity, dormancy, and seed germination speed, but also plays a role in oxidative stress tolerance, salt stress tolerance, and pattern-triggered immunity. This review deciphers the sequence and structure and evaluates existing knowledge of the function and expression pattern of RLK7.
{"title":"How Arabidopsis Receptor-Like Kinase 7 (RLK7) Manifests: Delineating Its Structure and Function","authors":"Ramen Chowdhury, M. Mubassir","doi":"10.1155/2022/4715110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4715110","url":null,"abstract":"Like animals, plants customarily utilize cell surface-localized receptors to keep track of environmental stimuli, specifically by plasma membrane-associated receptor-like kinases (RLKs). In comparison to other organisms, plants own a variety of RLKs, which insinuates that ligand-receptor-facilitated molecular mechanisms regulate an array of processes during plant development. Here, we take up Arabidopsis receptor-like kinase 7 (RLK7), which shares the archetypal structure of transmembrane receptor kinases accompanied by a receptor-like ectodomain comprising of leucine-rich repeats (LRRs) along with a functional intracellular kinase domain. Interestingly, this distinctive receptor-like kinase not only orchestrates crucial steps during plant development, including the regulation of seed longevity, dormancy, and seed germination speed, but also plays a role in oxidative stress tolerance, salt stress tolerance, and pattern-triggered immunity. This review deciphers the sequence and structure and evaluates existing knowledge of the function and expression pattern of RLK7.","PeriodicalId":30608,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Agriculture","volume":"460 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79820585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
One of the agricultural activities of rural farmers is dairy farming. Furthermore, by providing income, it has the potential to make farm households rich. The objective of this study was to analyze the general factors that influence adoption decisions, as well as the status of adoption of dairy technology in the Offa district, Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia. The study area has fundamental factors influencing the adoption of dairy technologies which were unknown. This research was started to fill a knowledge gap for responsible bodies. Four kebeles were selected randomly for the study. 150 sample households (63 adopters and 87 nonadopters) were chosen using the SRS (systematic random sampling) method. The interview schedule was used to collect primary data from these households. Secondary data were gathered from a variety of sources, including reports, research findings, documents, and publications. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed by using descriptive and econometric analyzes by SPSS version 21. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were also used to collect qualitative data. A binary logistic regression model was used to examine the factors that influence the adoption of dairy technologies. The results of the binary logistic regression model revealed that both dairy technology participants and nonparticipant households experienced a combination of personal, demographic, economic, and institutional factors that hindered adoption. Respondent age, access to credit services, size of household landholding, frequency of the extension contact, involvement of outside income, livestock ownership, and distance from the nearest market were all significant negative contributing factors. On the other hand, farm income and dairy farming experience were positively significant variables in the model. Technical assistance to improve farm productivity and income, experience sharing and field visit programs to the fields of early experienced dairy farmers, improvement of farmland usage, improvement of road infrastructure in the study area, provision of appropriate and modernized training and extension services, and so on are among the recommendations.
{"title":"Determinants of Adoption of Improved Dairy Technologies: The Case of Offa Woreda, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia","authors":"Zekarias Zemarku, M. Senapathy, Elias Bojago","doi":"10.1155/2022/3947794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3947794","url":null,"abstract":"One of the agricultural activities of rural farmers is dairy farming. Furthermore, by providing income, it has the potential to make farm households rich. The objective of this study was to analyze the general factors that influence adoption decisions, as well as the status of adoption of dairy technology in the Offa district, Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia. The study area has fundamental factors influencing the adoption of dairy technologies which were unknown. This research was started to fill a knowledge gap for responsible bodies. Four kebeles were selected randomly for the study. 150 sample households (63 adopters and 87 nonadopters) were chosen using the SRS (systematic random sampling) method. The interview schedule was used to collect primary data from these households. Secondary data were gathered from a variety of sources, including reports, research findings, documents, and publications. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed by using descriptive and econometric analyzes by SPSS version 21. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were also used to collect qualitative data. A binary logistic regression model was used to examine the factors that influence the adoption of dairy technologies. The results of the binary logistic regression model revealed that both dairy technology participants and nonparticipant households experienced a combination of personal, demographic, economic, and institutional factors that hindered adoption. Respondent age, access to credit services, size of household landholding, frequency of the extension contact, involvement of outside income, livestock ownership, and distance from the nearest market were all significant negative contributing factors. On the other hand, farm income and dairy farming experience were positively significant variables in the model. Technical assistance to improve farm productivity and income, experience sharing and field visit programs to the fields of early experienced dairy farmers, improvement of farmland usage, improvement of road infrastructure in the study area, provision of appropriate and modernized training and extension services, and so on are among the recommendations.","PeriodicalId":30608,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Agriculture","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75882334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chaimiso Demisse, M. Melese, Mebratu Alemu, Afework Berhanu, Tamrat Sinore
This study was aimed to analyze potato market participation, market surplus, and market outlet choice in Lemo District of southern Ethiopia. To achieve the objective, primary and secondary data sources were employed and 202 potato producers were selected following simple random sampling techniques. The collected data were analyzed by using Heckman second-stage and multivariate probit models to identify factors that determine potato market participation decision and potato farmer market outlet choice, respectively. The Heckman’s first-stage (probit) result indicates that education level, sex, membership in the cooperative, distance to the nearest market, remittent from family members, own transportation facilities, seed types, frequency of extension contact, lagged market price, and amount of credit that farm household used for potato production significantly ( P <