This paper presents the results of an analysis that predicts the scale efficiency of individual farms and analyses the differences in scale efficiency over time and between farms. Representative farm account data for 1985–2006 are used, and the study applies stochastic frontier analysis using an input distance–function approach. The results show that pig farms have improved their input scale ef...

A network platform scheme targets the Zigong City’s characteristic agriculture is designed, which is according to the actuality of characteristic agriculture, the requirements of Comprehensive Information sharing ,and the status of city’s network topology. In the scheme, many solutions are given out, such as the network architecture, distributed data storage, remote diagnosing, expert decision-...

Agriculture has two ways to increase its output, expanding the land area under cultivation and improving the yields on cultivated land. If agricultural growth and performance taken to increase the farming incomes of rural families, then a third way can be added, i.e. shifting the product composition to higher value products. For decades, it has been commented that, globally the possibilities fo...

Precision agriculture has become a promising paradigm to transform modern agriculture. The recent revolution in big data and Internet-of-Things (IoT) provides unprecedented benefits including optimizing yield, minimizing environmental impact, reducing cost. However, the mass collection of farm IoT applications raises serious concerns about potential privacy leakage that may harm farmers’ welfar...

To solve the problem of the high cost in the GPRS communication and the limit transmission distance of WiFi, a transmission scheme for distant agriculture image acquisition was designed based on digital transmission radio in this paper. However, the majority of current digital transmission radio was designed for a small amount of data transmission. It could get a greater transmission distance w...

The nitrogen and carbon stable isotope ratios (dN and dC) of the pygmy mussel, Xenostrobus securis, were determined for three estuaries with varying levels of catchment disturbance in northern New South Wales, Australia. The lower Manning River catchment supported the highest human population densities and 3% residential development with some livestock agriculture (41%); the Wallamba River catc...

Soil salinity is considered as one of the major challenges in coastal agriculture in Bangladesh yet geographical extent of soil salinity and nutrients status have received little or no attention. This study investigated the patterns of soil salinity, total nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and sulfur between agricultural and fallow land along a 90 km distance from the coastline in Noakhali, Bang...