To increase profitability, farmers often decide to form strategic partnerships with other farmers, pooling their resources and outputs for greater efficiency and scale. These coordination decisions can have far-reaching and complex implications for overall food supply chain structural emergence, which in turn impacts system outcomes and long-term sustainability. In this paper, we describe an ag...

this paper proposed analytical solutions for the buckling analysis of rectangular single-layered graphene sheets under in-plane loading on all edges simply is supported. the characteristic equations of the graphene sheets are derived and the analysis formula is based on the nonlocal mindlin plate. this theory is considering both the small length scale effects and transverse shear deformation ef...

In this paper, we investigate the impact of the Farmer Field School (FFS) intervention among small-scale tomato farmers in Beijing. Using data collected by face-to face-interview from 358 households on 426 planting plots in 2009, we evaluate the yield effect and find evidence of positive impact. We then examine the determining factors of farmers’ FFS attendance using the zero-inflated Poisson m...

Climate change is increasing water scarcity in Sri Lanka. Whether these changes will undermine national-level food security depends upon the ability of the small-scale farmers that dominate rice production and the institutions that support them to overcome the challenges presented by changing water availability. Analyzing household survey data, this research identifies household, institutional,...

the uncontrolled spread of illegal artisanal small-scale gold mining (asm), popularly termed “galamsey” in ghana, has, for decades, impacted adversely upon water bodies, soils, wildlife, human health, and safety. a lack of understanding, however, of the types of galamsey, their operational attributes, and their relative impacts has unfortunately hindered an effective policy response despite num...

in this research, the bending analysis of rectangular nanoplates subjected to mechanical loading is investigated. for this purpose, the strain gradient elasticity theory with one gradient parameter is presented to study the nanoplates. from the best knowledge of authors, it is the first time that the exponential shear deformation formulation based on strain gradient elasticity theory is carried...

The US regulations for production of organic milk include a strict prohibition against the use of antimicrobials and other synthetic substances. The effect of these regulations on dairy animal health has not been previously reported. The objective of this study was to characterize disease detection and identify risk factors for selected diseases on organic (ORG) and similarly sized conventional...

Destructive fires in Amazonia have occurred in the past decade, leading to forest degradation, carbon emissions, impaired air quality, and property damage. Here, we couple climate, geospatial, and province-level census data, with farmer surveys to examine the climatic, demographic, and land use factors associated with fire frequency in the Peruvian Amazon from 2000 to 2010. Although our results...