Agricultural, architectural and archaeological evidence for the role and ecological adaptation of a scattered mountain oasis in Oman

The recent discovery of the monumental 5000 years old tower tombs on top of the up to 1850 m high Shir plateau has raised numerous questions about the economic and infrastructural basis of the agro-pastoral-piscicultural society which likely has constructed them. The scattered oasis settlement of Maqta, situated just below the towers in a rugged desert environment has therefore been studied from 2001 to 2003 to understand its prehistoric and present role along the ancient trade route which connected the inner-Omani Sharqiya across the southern Hajar mountains with the ocean port of Tiwi. Maqta consists of a central area with 59 buildings and 12 scattered temporary settlements comprising a total of about 200 semi-nomadic inhabitants and next to 900 sheep and goats. The 22 small springs with a flow rate between 5 and 1212-l h^-1 are watering 16 terrace systems totaling 4.5 ha of which 2.9 ha are planted to date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.), 0.4 ha to wheat landraces (Triticum durum and Triticum aestivum) during the cooler winter months, 0.4 are left fallow and 0.8 h are abandoned. During a pronounced drought period from 2001 to 2003, the springs’ flow rate declined between 38% and 72%. Most of the recent buildings of the central housing area were found empty or used as temporary stores by the agro-pastoral population watching their flocks on the surrounding dry mountains. There is no indication that there ever was a settlement older than the present one. A number of Hafit (3100–2700 BC) and Umm an-Nar (2700–2000 BC) tombs just above the central housing area and further along one of the trade routes to the coast are the only indication of an old pastoral landuse in Maqta territory where oasis agriculture may have entered only well after 1000 AD. With this little evidence of existence during the 3rd millennium BC, Maqta is unlikely to have played any major role favouring the construction of the nearby monumental Shir tower tombs other than providing water for herders and their flocks, early migrant traders or tower tomb constructors.

Attribute exploration with background implications and exceptions

Implications between attributes can represent knowledge about objects in a specified context. This knowledge representation is especially useful when it is not possible to list all specified objects. Attribute exploration is a tool of formal concept analysis that supports the acquisition of this knowledge. For a specified context this interactive procedure determines a miminal list of valid implications between attributes of this context together with a list of objects which are counterexamples for all implications not valid in the context. This paper describes how the exploration can be modified such that it determines a mimimal set of implications that fills the gap between previously given implications (called background implications) and all valid implications. The list of implications can be simplified further if exceptions are allowed for the implications.

Horns in cattle - implications of keeping horned cattle or not

Literaturreview zum Thema Behornung und Enthornung bei Rindern,Qualitative und quantitative Befragung von Landwirten zur Enthornungspraxis, Untersuchung zur Auswirkung von unterschiedlichen Vorwartehofgrößen auf die Herzfrequenz und die agonistischen Interaktionen von eher ranghohen und eher rangniedrigen horntragenden Milchkühen, Untersuchung zur Auswirkung von zeitlich begrenztem Weidegang auf die Herzfrequenz, die Herzfrequenzvariabilität und die agonistischen Interaktionen von horntragenden Milchkühen im Laufstall

Farmers’ desired traits and selection criteria for maize varieties and their implications for maize breeding: A case study from KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

Adoption of hybrids and improved varieties has remained low in the smallholder farming sector of South Africa, despite maize being the staple food crop for the majority of households. The objective of this study was to establish preferred maize characteristics by farmers which can be used as selection criteria by maize breeders in crop improvement. Data were collected from three villages of a selected smallholder farming area in South Africa using a survey covering 300 households and participatory rural appraisal methodology. Results indicated a limited selection of maize varieties grown by farmers in the area compared to other communities in Africa. More than 97% of the farmers grew a local landrace called Natal-8-row or IsiZulu. Hybrids and improved open pollinated varieties were planted by less than 40% of the farmers. The Natal-8-row landrace had characteristics similar to landraces from eastern and southern Africa and closely resembled Hickory King, a landrace still popular in Southern Africa. The local landrace was preferred for its taste, recycled seed, tolerance to abiotic stresses and yield stability. Preferred characteristics of maize varieties were high yield and prolificacy, disease resistance, early maturity, white grain colour, and drying and shelling qualities. Farmers were willing to grow hybrids if the cost of seed and other inputs were affordable and their preferences were considered. Our results show that breeding opportunities exist for improving the farmers’ local varieties and maize breeders can take advantage of these preferred traits and incorporate them into existing high yielding varieties.

The Food Crisis: Implications for Labor

Food prices have gone up to prohibitive levels for many of the world’s poor. The vast majority of those who are hungry in the world today are working in agriculture, either as small landholders or as waged agricultural workers. The majority of the food producers have not benefited from rising prices. Apparently, the bargaining power of many producers, just as that of the end consumers, has been weakened vis-à-vis the buyers and retailers of agricultural produce. This powerlessness is also in the face of governments that fail to provide an appropriate infrastructure for smallholders and social protection. The first part of the book provides an introduction to the immediate and structural causes of the food crisis. The second part contains contributions that not only highlight the plight of rural labour but also develop tools for measuring the decent work deficit. The last part emphasizes income security as a major precondition for food security. It looks at the experiences of Brazil and India with the extension of social protection for the poor.

The Brazilian Zero Hunger social program implications in achieving sustainable development

This article aims to analyse the progress taken by Brazil towards the accomplishment of a sustainable development, mainly highlighting the success of the Zero Hunger social programme in achieving the elimination of starvation. As one of the essential pillars to the sustainable development, the State’s social performance demands actions directed to the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger, establishing a basis for equitable growth. It is necessary to clarify the juridical and constitutional framework of Brazil, aiming to emphasise the Zero Hunger importance in achieving the Brazilian Republic’s goals and reaching an international pattern on sustainable development. Also, it will be stressed that the international order influences Brazilian domestic law and is one of the main aspects for the Zero Hunger program development.

An algorithmic approach for collaborative-based prediction of user contexts in ubiquitous environments under consideration of legal implications

Mit Hilfe der Vorhersage von Kontexten können z. B. Dienste innerhalb einer ubiquitären Umgebung proaktiv an die Bedürfnisse der Nutzer angepasst werden. Aus diesem Grund hat die Kontextvorhersage einen signifikanten Stellenwert innerhalb des ’ubiquitous computing’. Nach unserem besten Wissen, verwenden gängige Ansätze in der Kontextvorhersage ausschließlich die Kontexthistorie des Nutzers als Datenbasis, dessen Kontexte vorhersagt werden sollen. Im Falle, dass ein Nutzer unerwartet seine gewohnte Verhaltensweise ändert, enthält die Kontexthistorie des Nutzers keine geeigneten Informationen, um eine zuverlässige Kontextvorhersage zu gewährleisten. Daraus folgt, dass Vorhersageansätze, die ausschließlich die Kontexthistorie des Nutzers verwenden, dessen Kontexte vorhergesagt werden sollen, fehlschlagen könnten. Um die Lücke der fehlenden Kontextinformationen in der Kontexthistorie des Nutzers zu schließen, führen wir den Ansatz zur kollaborativen Kontextvorhersage (CCP) ein. Dabei nutzt CCP bestehende direkte und indirekte Relationen, die zwischen den Kontexthistorien der verschiedenen Nutzer existieren können, aus. CCP basiert auf der Singulärwertzerlegung höherer Ordnung, die bereits erfolgreich in bestehenden Empfehlungssystemen eingesetzt wurde. Um Aussagen über die Vorhersagegenauigkeit des CCP Ansatzes treffen zu können, wird dieser in drei verschiedenen Experimenten evaluiert. Die erzielten Vorhersagegenauigkeiten werden mit denen von drei bekannten Kontextvorhersageansätzen, dem ’Alignment’ Ansatz, dem ’StatePredictor’ und dem ’ActiveLeZi’ Vorhersageansatz, verglichen. In allen drei Experimenten werden als Evaluationsbasis kollaborative Datensätze verwendet. Anschließend wird der CCP Ansatz auf einen realen kollaborativen Anwendungsfall, den proaktiven Schutz von Fußgängern, angewendet. Dabei werden durch die Verwendung der kollaborativen Kontextvorhersage Fußgänger frühzeitig erkannt, die potentiell Gefahr laufen, mit einem sich nähernden Auto zu kollidieren. Als kollaborative Datenbasis werden reale Bewegungskontexte der Fußgänger verwendet. Die Bewegungskontexte werden mittels Smartphones, welche die Fußgänger in ihrer Hosentasche tragen, gesammelt. Aus dem Grund, dass Kontextvorhersageansätze in erster Linie personenbezogene Kontexte wie z.B. Standortdaten oder Verhaltensmuster der Nutzer als Datenbasis zur Vorhersage verwenden, werden rechtliche Evaluationskriterien aus dem Recht des Nutzers auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung abgeleitet. Basierend auf den abgeleiteten Evaluationskriterien, werden der CCP Ansatz und weitere bekannte kontextvorhersagende Ansätze bezüglich ihrer Rechtsverträglichkeit untersucht. Die Evaluationsergebnisse zeigen die rechtliche Kompatibilität der untersuchten Vorhersageansätze bezüglich des Rechtes des Nutzers auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung auf. Zum Schluss wird in der Dissertation ein Ansatz für die verteilte und kollaborative Vorhersage von Kontexten vorgestellt. Mit Hilfe des Ansatzes wird eine Möglichkeit aufgezeigt, um den identifizierten rechtlichen Probleme, die bei der Vorhersage von Kontexten und besonders bei der kollaborativen Vorhersage von Kontexten, entgegenzuwirken.

Transaction costs of farmers’ participation in forest management: Policy implications of payments for environmental services schemes in Vietnam

Recent research on payments for environmental services (PES) has observed that high transaction costs (TCs) are incurred through the implementation of PES schemes and farmer participation. TCs incurred by households are considered to be an obstacle to the participation in and efficiency of PES policies. This study aims to understand transactions related to previous forest plantation programmes and to estimate the actual TCs incurred by farmers who participated in these programmes in a mountainous area of northwestern Vietnam. In addition, this study examines determinants of households’ TCs to test the hypothesis of whether the amount of TCs varies according to household characteristics. Results show that average TCs are not likely to be a constraint for participation since they are about 200,000 VND (USD 10) per household per contract, which is equivalent to one person’s average earnings for about two days of labour. However, TCs amount to more than one-third of the programmes’ benefits, which is relatively high compared to PES programmes in developed countries. This implies that rather than aiming to reduce TCs, an appropriate agenda for policy improvement is to balance the level of TCs with PES programme benefits to enhance the overall attractiveness of afforestation programmes for smallholder farmers. Regression analysis reveals that education, gender and perception towards PES programmes have significant effects on the magnitude of TCs. The analyses also points out the importance of local conditions on the level of TCs, with some unexpected results.

Diversity and nutritional properties of Pakistani dates: implications for sustainable value chain and decent living perspectives of rural households

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) occupies almost three percent of the total worldwide cultivated area, with an annual production of seven million tonnes (t). Pakistan is an ideal place for the cultivation of date palm due to its sandy loam soil and semi-arid climate. In 2012, Pakistan produced 600,000 t of dates, on an area of 95,000 ha. Baluchistan province is the country’s top date producer, followed by Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provinces. More than 300 date varieties are known to exist in Pakistan and some commercially important cultivars are: Karbalaen, Aseel, Muzawati, Fasli, Begum Jhangi, Hillawi, Dashtiari, Sabzo, Koharaba, Jaan Swore, Rabai and Dhakki. Six districts from the four provinces of Pakistan (Jhang, Muzaffargarh and Bahawalpur (Punjab), Dera Ismail Khan (KPK), Khairpur (Sindh) and Panjgur (Baluchistan)) with largest area under date palm cultivation were selected to conduct socio-economic surveys including the income sources of date palm growers. A structured questionnaire with open-ended and closed questions was used for face-to-face interviews of 170 date palm growers. At each location after selection of a first farmer through a local guide, the former was requested to provide names and addresses of three other date growers in his area. From these three names, one was randomly selected for the next sampling. Additionally, date palm fronds and fruits of all available cultivars were collected for morphological and nutritional analyses. Soil samples were collected from the groves for subsequent chemical and physical analyses. Almost all farmers used dates as a food item for their families and some were using low quality dates as a feed for their livestock. Apart from dates, other date palm components (trunk, spadix, frond, inflorescence and seed) were used by date palm growers as a raw material for making many by-products for their families. Date palm had a major contribution in the income of households, 24% received 91-100% of their income from date palms. More than half of the surveyed farmers had date palm groves, but scattered plantations, home gardens and intercropping systems with cereal and other fruits were also present. Dhakki, Muzawati, Aseel, and Karbalaen were the most important commercial cultivars grown in the provinces of KPK, Baluchistan, and Sindh. Aseel, Karoch, Haleni, Karbalaen, and Muzawati cultivars had the most firm fruit and good total soluble sugar, calcium and magnesium contents. The amount of magnesium found in dates of studied cultivars ranged from 0.143 to 0.876 mg g-1. A great variation in frond morphology was recorded among the cultivars. Fruit length and fruit weight was highest in Dhakki date, making it visually more attractive for customers in addition to its good nutritional properties. The seed weight of the studied cultivars ranged from 0.7-2.0 g, while Desi dates had largest seed, making them less attractive for marketing. However, in terms of nutritional value and fruit size, most of the investigated varieties can compete with globally important commercial dates.

Perception of quality in certified organic pineapples by farmers in Kayunga district, Central Uganda: Implications for food security

In East Africa, Uganda is one of the major producers of organic pineapples for export. These pineapples are mainly produced in central Uganda and have to meet stringent quality standards before they can be allowed on international markets. These quality standards may put considerable strain on farmers and may not be wholly representative of their quality interpretation. The aim of this paper is therefore, to determine the Ugandan organic pineapple farmers’ quality perception, the activities they carry out in order to attain that quality and challenges (production, postharvest & marketing) faced on the same. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out among 28 organic pineapple farmers in Kayunga district, central Uganda. Findings suggest that quality of organic pineapples is mainly perceived in terms of product attributes particularly appearance followed by food security provision. Certification plays a minor role in what farmers describe as organic quality. High production input costs (labour and coffee husks) coupled with a stagnant premium are some of the major challenges faced by farmers in attaining organic quality. The paper argues that currently there are concealed negative food security effects embroiled in these pineapple schemes. It is recommended that the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) works with all relevant stakeholders to have the farmer premium price raised and an official organic policy enacted.