We present a stochastic two-population model that describes the migration and growth of semisedentary foragers and sedentary farmers along a river valley during the Neolithic transition. The main idea of this paper is that random migration and transition from a sedentary to a foraging way of life, and backwards, is strongly coupled with the local crop production and associated degradation of la...

for maximum impact, high yielding improved varieties with significant yield advantages must be targeted to farmers and localities that value this trait most. explaining farmers’ demand for yield can serve as a means of targeting the development and dissemination of high yielding varieties. this paper analyzes data collected from 395 farmers in northern ethiopia using a zero-limit tobit regressi...

Crop insurance is an appropriate way to overcome the risk in agricultural production sector and increase farmer’s peace of mind for their future income. In the agricultural sector of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, the risk of production is high due to the substantial losses of crops and other diseases and so is the income risk. Since most local farmers have low incomes and livelihoods, natural dis...

Computational tomography is an important technique for developing digital agricultural models that may help farmers and breeders for increasing crop quality and yield. In the present study an attempt has been made to understand rice seed development within the panicle at different developmental stages using this technique. During the first phase of cell division the Hounsfield Unit (HU) value r...

We present a stochastic two-population model that describes the migration and growth of semisedentary foragers and sedentary farmers along a river valley during the Neolithic transition. The main idea is that random migration and transition from a sedentary to a foraging way of life, and backwards, is strongly coupled with the local crop production and associated degradation of land. We derive ...

Cropcheck developed following the identification of limitations to the Transfer of Technology (TOT) extension model which occurred through the 1970’s and into the early 1980’s (Lacy 2011). Irrigated wheat yields stagnated with high variability from year to year and no understanding as to why this occurred. This was despite several communication methods (farm visits, demonstrations, plot trials,...

We hypothesize that institutions such as agricultural cooperatives influence regional levels of variety diversity through input supply, processing or marketing functions. This diversity can also affect yield, a partial measure of crop productivity. We test these hypotheses with data from southern Italy, a mega-diversity spot and centre of diversity for durum wheat. Cooperatives in the southern ...

While crop genetic diversity supports ecological processes and food security, there have been few cross-cultural studies evaluating the influence of cultural and dietary factors on the conservation of genetic resources. This study examines genetic diversity patterns of tartary buckwheat in 18 smallholder farming communities across five regions of China (Yunnan Province, Tibet Autonomous Region ...

Recent evidence shows that many Sub-Saharan African farmers use modern inputs, but there is limited information on how these inputs are financed. We use recent nationally representative data from four countries to explore input financing and the role of credit therein. A number of our results contradict "conventional wisdom" found in the literature. Our results consistently show that traditiona...

Agricultural damage by wildlife is a major concern for both agricultural and wildlife agencies at the state and federal level. Our objective was to estimate wildlife damage to agricultural crops on a statewide basis. We sent questionnaires to 4,958 farmers and 1,003 were returned after 2 mailings. Twenty-five percent of farmers responding to our survey rated the level of wildlife damage to thei...