Alternative Cow Herd Investment Strategies: Constant Size and Constant Investment

Two heifer replacement strategies were compared over a 25-year period. One strategy retained the same number of heifers each year to maintain a constant herd size. The second strategy retained the same dollar value of heifer calves each year based on their opportunity cost as feeder calves. The constant investment strategy herd size varied throughout the period, but generated higher average profit and higher net worth than did the constant herd size strategy. Constant investment is a simple strategy to adjust the level of investment in beef cows and the resource base (pasture, labor, winter feed) in response to market signals driven by the cattle cycle. This strategy automatically increases heifer retention when the opportunity cost is low and reduces the number retained when cost is high. The effect is a lower average cost of cows in the herd, lower overall investment, and a higher net return on investment. Iowa producers, who often have greater flexibility in land use than producers in other major beef cow regions, can better utilize this strategy that generates greater profits and net worth growth.

Desertification mitigation and water harvesting based on sustainable land management

Traditionally, desertification research has focused on degradation assessments, whereas prevention and mitigation strategies have not sufficiently been emphasised, although the concept of sustainable land management (SLM) is increasingly being acknowledged. SLM strategies are interventions at the local to regional scale aiming at increasing productivity, protecting the natural resource base, and improving livelihoods. The global WOCAT initiative and its partners have developed harmonized frameworks to compile, evaluate and analyse the impact of SLM practices around the globe. Recent studies within the EU research project DESIRE developed a methodological framework that combines a collective learning and decision-making approach with use of best practices from the WOCAT database. In-depth assessment of 30 technologies and 8 approaches from 17 desertification sites enabled an evaluation of how SLM addresses prevalent dryland threats such as water scarcity, soil and vegetation degradation, low production, climate change, resource use conflicts and migration. Among the impacts attributed to the documented technologies, those mentioned most were diversified and enhanced production and better management of water and soil degradation, whether through water harvesting, improving soil moisture, or reducing runoff. Water harvesting offers under-exploited opportunities for the drylands and the predominantly rainfed farming systems of the developing world. Recently compiled guidelines introduce the concepts behind water harvesting and propose a harmonised classification system, followed by an assessment of suitability, adoption and up-scaling of practices. Case studies go from large-scale floodwater spreading that make alluvial plains cultivable, to systems that boost cereal production in small farms, as well as practices that collect and store water from household compounds. Once contextualized and set in appropriate institutional frameworks, they can form part of an overall adaptation strategy for land users. More field research is needed to reinforce expert assessments of SLM impacts and provide the necessary evidence-based rationale for investing in SLM. This includes developing methods to quantify and value ecosystem services, both on-site and off-site, and assess the resilience of SLM practices, as currently aimed at within the new EU CASCADE project.

Natural Resources in 2025 - Implications for Development : Opportunity of a trunaround: An expert reassessment

In recent years developing countries have faced highly dynamic changes affecting their natural resource base and their potential for development. Taking into account these changes in the development context, InfoResources initiated a critical reassessment of the results of InfoResources Trends 2005 and again invited experts from around the world to assess trends that least developed countries are likely to be facing by 2025. The unanimous signal conveyed by the international experts for this assessment is alarming: The degradation of natural resources is progressing. By 2025 it will reach a point where livelihoods in least developing countries will be significantly threatened and an increasing number of agro-ecosystems will lose their capacity to deliver important services. Expected positive social trends will not suffice as leverage to reverse the degradation of natural resources and thus alleviate poverty and hunger. However, the present reassessment clearly reveals that a change in thinking and a shift in paradigms have begun to take place. However, a turnaround can only succeed if the emerging awareness of the need to reorient policy-making and the economy is followed by concrete action. It will be crucial that policies and institutions regain regulating power over greedy economic forces. This reassessment does not claim to be comprehensive. However, the present publication, which synthesises the experts’ inputs, aims at providing food for thought and initiating discussions.

Sustainable livestock production? Industrial agriculture versus pastoralism

Feeding our growing world population and preserving our natural resource base is a major agricultural challenge set to get harder. Despite agricultural productivity gains in many areas, roughly a billion people continue to suffer from chronic hunger.1 Meanwhile, we will likely add about 2.5 billion people to the planet by 2050.2 Yet providing enough nutrition for current and future generations is entirely possible, if we make the best use of Earth’s finite natural resources, especially arable land. Notably, one agricultural sector – livestock – places excessive demands on our resource base. But this is mainly due to globalized, industrial meat production methods. Tragically, the most sustainable livestock producers – herders and other mobile, smaller-scale livestock keepers – have been marginalized by mainstream agricultural policy for decades. It is high time for a course correction.

Chloroplast and total genomic diversity in the endemic Costa Rican tree Lonchocarpus costaricensis (J.D. Smith) Pittier (Papilionaceae).

In Mesoamerica, tropical dry forest is a highly threatened habitat, and species endemic to this environment are under extreme pressure. The tree species, Lonchocarpus costaricensis is endemic to the dry northwest of Costa Rica and southwest Nicaragua. It is a locally important species but, as land has been cleared for agriculture, populations have experienced considerable reduction and fragmentation. To assess current levels and distribution of genetic diversity in the species, a combination of chloroplast-specific (cpDNA) and whole genome DNA markers (amplified fragment length polymorphism, AFLP) were used to fingerprint 121 individual trees in 6 populations. Two cpDNA haplotypes were identified, distributed among populations such that populations at the extremes of the distribution showed lowest diversity. A large number (487) of AFLP markers were obtained and indicated that diversity levels were highest in the two coastal populations (Cobano, Matapalo, H = 0.23, 0.28 respectively). Population differentiation was low overall, F-ST = 0.12, although Matapalo was strongly differentiated from all other populations (F-ST = 0.16-0.22), apart from Cobano (F., = 0.11). Spatial genetic structure was present in both datasets at different scales: cpDNA was structured at a range-wide distribution scale, whilst AFLP data revealed genetic neighbourhoods on a population scale. In general, the habitat degradation of recent times appears not to have yet impacted diversity levels in mature populations. However, although no data on seed or saplings were collected, it seems likely that reproductive mechanisms in the species will have been affected by land clearance. It is recommended that efforts should be made to conserve the extant genetic resource base and further research undertaken to investigate diversity levels in the progeny generation.

Doing business in... Sri Lanka

Having a well-developed human resource base and a relatively well-developed capital market infrastructure, Sri Lanka offers a liberal and dynamic investment environment. Over the years, macrostability has been achieved and considerable reforms have been implemented, contributing to a healthy economic growth. This article provides useful information on the business environment and is intended to help foreign businessmen and investors to develop a good grasp of essential background knowledge for being successful in Sri Lanka. It reviews the Sri Lankan political structure, climate, and economy. Sri Lanka's infrastructure, legal framework, and socioculturel set-up, as well as market structure and potential, are also analyzed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Privatisation and sustainable competitive advantage in the emerging economies of Central Europe

Extant research on the impact of privatization in the Central Europe (CE) region has focused on improvements in efficiency and the nature of cost-based advantages. This study argues that the development of a vibrant privatized sector requires attention to the broader resource configurations of domestic enterprises. Empirical research was conducted on a large sample of firms in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia. Foreign investment was found to significantly impact on resource accumulation with implications for the development of strategic capabilities and competitive advantage. Foreign direct investment is an effective vehicle for the transfer of financial resources, reputation and new brands but not organizational capabilities. In terms of practice, this study demonstrates the important role of outside investment in the development of a firm's resource base (Frydman et al. 1999). Companies can gain a competitive advantage in their domestic markets through gaining access to the resources of foreign investors.

Innovation, ownership and profitability

There is lots of evidence that innovating firms are persistently more profitable than non-innovators, but little agreement on why this is the case. It may be because innovators are somehow able to protect their new products from the competition which normally erodes profits, or because innovating firms have superior capabilities and are able to introduce multiple innovations over time. And very little is known about the relationship between innovation, external ownership and profitability, despite the fact that foreign-owned firms are frequently highly innovative and very profitable. This paper considers the relationship between innovation, ownership and profitability for a panel of manufacturing plants in Ireland and Northern Ireland. We consider the link between innovation and profits separately for innovators and non-innovators, and for indigenous innovators and non-innovators and externally-owned plants. We also consider the determinants of innovation over the distribution of plant-level profitability, and find that the determinants of profitability – including innovation and external ownership – are quite different for low and high-profitability plants. We find support for the view that innovators and non-innovators have different profitability determinants, and that externally-owned plants have their profitability determined in a quite different way from indigenous enterprises. For indigenous non-innovators only the sector matters. Profitability in these enterprises is dictated largely by the industry they are in, with plants having virtually no means of differentiating their profitability from the norms of the industry. By contrast, indigenously-owned innovators are able to differentiate their profit performance from industry norms to some extent. Absolute size matters (negatively) and they get a strong boost from product innovation, but having a high market share does not matter for the profitability of indigenously-owned innovators. Externally-owned plants have a quite different set of profitability determinants from both of these groups. What matters for these plants is not the boost they get from innovating (there is none) but instead their position in the domestic market – a high market share boosts profitability. In policy terms our results suggest both optimistic and cautionary messages. On the positive side our results suggest that efforts to promote innovation activity among indigenously-owned plants are likely to have significant longer term benefits through their capability effects. For the development agencies in Ireland this is a reassuring result. On the more negative side, the lack of any relationship in our models between the innovation activities of externally-owned plants and their (profitability) performance raises potential concerns. This finding may reflect the lack of linkages between externally-owned plants and their Irish resource base, in turn raising some worrying issues about the ‘embeddedness’ of much FDI into Ireland and therefore its ‘stickiness’ in the face of Ireland’s increasing high relative cost base.

A rationale for the optimisation by computer methods of the efficient use of metals and materials

The aim of the research project was to gain d complete and accurate accounting of the needs and deficiencies of materials selection and design data, with particular attention given to the feasibility of a computerised materials selection system that would include application analysis, property data and screening techniques. The project also investigates and integrates the three major aspects of materials resources, materials selection and materials recycling. Consideration of the materials resource base suggests that, though our discovery potential has increased, geologic availability is the ultimate determinant and several metals may well become scarce at the same time, thus compounding the problem of substitution. With around 2- to 20- million units of engineering materials data, the use of a computer is the only logical answer for scientific selection of materials. The system developed at Aston is used for data storage, mathematical computation and output. The system enables programs to be run in batch and interactive (on-line) mode. The program with modification can also handle such variables as quantity of mineral resources, energy cost of materials and depletion and utilisation rates of strateqic materials. The work also carries out an in-depth study of copper recycling in the U.K. and concludes that, somewhere in the region of 2 million tonnes of copper is missing from the recycling cycle. It also sets out guidelines on product design and conservation policies from the recyclability point of view.

Dynamic capabilities and strategic paradox: a case study

Today’s business leaders must constantly review and develop their firm’s abilities to adapt to and benefit from external changes. Dynamic capabilities are the capacity of an organization to purposefully create, extend or modify its resource base. They enable it to exploit business, technological and market opportunities and adapt to market changes, an ability more often observed in highly dynamic industries, such as consumer electronics or telecommunications. Using the case study method, this article identifies dynamic capabilities in traditional, less dynamic industries when faced with a sudden drop of revenue. Four distinct routines emerge, namely structure and practices enduring time-sensitive strategic decision-making by the tice, and a culture encouraging learning and coevolving. Seemingly strategic paradox objectives encourage the management team to question the status quo and, when managed well, transform the tensions between old and new into an ability to advance superior ideas faster.

Subtractive and additive manufacturing technology in moulding industry

This report is a review of additive and subtractive manufacturing techniques. This approach (additive manufacturing) has resided largely in the prototyping realm, where the methods of producing complex freeform solid objects directly from a computer model without part-specific tooling or knowledge. But these technologies are evolving steadily and are beginning to encompass related systems of material addition, subtraction, assembly, and insertion of components made by other processes. Furthermore, these various additive processes are starting to evolve into rapid manufacturing techniques for mass-customized products, away from narrowly defined rapid prototyping. Taking this idea far enough down the line, and several years hence, a radical restructuring of manufacturing could take place. Manufacturing itself would move from a resource base to a knowledge base and from mass production of single use products to mass customized, high value, life cycle products, majority of research and development was focused on advanced development of existing technologies by improving processing performance, materials, modelling and simulation tools, and design tools to enable the transition from prototyping to manufacturing of end use parts.

Tropical limestone forest resilience and late Pleistocene foraging during MIS-2 in the Tràng An massif, Vietnam

In this paper we present a multi-proxy study of tropical limestone forest and its utilization by human groups during the major climatic and environmental upheavals of MIS-2 (29-11.7 kBP). Our data are drawn from new field research within the Tràng An World Heritage property on the edge of the Red River Delta, northern Vietnam. Key findings from this study include 1) that limestone forest formations were resilient to the large-scale landscape transformation of the Sunda continent at the end of the last glaciation; 2) that prehistoric human groups were probably present in this habitat through-out MIS-2; and 3) that the forested, insular, karst of Tràng An provided foragers with a stable resource-base in a wider changing landscape. These results have implications for our understanding of the prehistoric utilization of karst environments, and resonance for their conservation in the face of climate and environmental change today.

Bridging Perspectives

People’s ability to change their social and economic circumstances may be constrained by various forms of social, cultural and political domination. Thus to consider a social actor’s particular lifeworld in which the research is embedded assists in the understanding of how and why different trajectories of change occur or are hindered and how those changes fundamentally affect livelihood opportunities and constraints. In seeking to fulfill this condition this thesis adopted an actor-oriented approach to the study of rural livelihoods. A comprehensive livelihoods study requires grasping how social reality is being historically constituted. That means to understand how the interaction of modes of production and symbolical reproduction produces the socio-space. Research is here integrated to action through the facilitation of farmer groups. The overall aim of the groups was to prompt agency, as essential conditions to build more resilient livelihoods. The smallholder farmers in the Mabalane District of Mozambique are located in a remote semi-arid area. Their livelihoods customarily depend at least as much on livestock as on (mostly) rain-fed food crops. Increased climate variability exerts pressure on the already vulnerable production system. An extensive 10-month duration of participant observation divided into 3 periods of fieldwork structured the situated multi-method approach that drew on a set of interview categories. The actor-oriented appraisal of livelihoods worked in building a mutually shared definition of the situation. This reflection process was taken up by the facilitation of the farmer groups, one in Mabomo and one in Mungazi, which used an inquiry iteratively combining individual interviews and facilitated group meetings. Integration of action and reflection was fundamental for group constitution as spaces for communicative action. They needed to be self-organized and to achieve understanding intersubjectively, as well as to base action on cooperation and coordination. Results from this approach focus on how learning as collaboratively generated was enabled, or at times hindered, in (a) selecting meaningful options to test; (b) in developing mechanisms for group functioning; and (c) in learning from steering the testing of options. The study of livelihoods looked at how the different assets composing livelihoods are intertwined and how the increased severity of dry spells is contributing to escalated food insecurity. The reorganization of the social space, as households moved from scattered homesteads to form settlements, further exerts pressure on the already scarce natural resource-based livelihoods. Moreover, this process disrupted a normative base substantiating the way that the use of resources is governed. Hence, actual livelihood strategies and response mechanisms turn to diversification through income-generating activities that further increase pressure on the resource-base in a rather unsustainable way. These response mechanisms are, for example, the increase in small-livestock keeping, which has easier conversion to cash, and charcoal production. The latter results in ever more precarious living and working conditions. In the majority of the cases such responses are short-term and reduce future opportunities in a downward spiral of continuously decreasing assets. Thus, by indicating the failure of institutions in the mediation of smallholders’ adaptive capabilities, the livelihood assessment in Mabomo and Mungazi sheds light on the complex underlying structure of present day social vulnerability, linking the macro-context to the actual situation. To assist in breaking this state of “subordination”, shaped by historical processes, weak institutions and food insecurity, the chosen approach to facilitation of farmer groups puts farmer knowledge at the center of an evolving process of intersubjective co-construction of knowledge towards emancipation.

Socio-economic aspects of the fisheries of Nabugabo lakes and implications for management

Fisheries are very important to Uganda's economy. The sector provides a vital source of food, recreation, trade and socioeconomic well being for the people and community globally. The fisheries of small lakes are important for producing fish for local populations who are not near the large lakes. These satellite lakes support important fisheries and other economic activities like fishing, water for domestic purposes and tourism, besides socio-cultural values. A number-of fish;- species, some of which were found only in Lake Victoria have been depleted through over-exploitation, introduction of exotics especiaily Nile perch and environmental degradation. Some of these fishes have been observed to survive in satellite lakes in the Victoria and Kyoga Lake basins. The Nabugabo satellite lakes (Manywa, Kayugi and Kayanja) contain endemic Cichlid fish species acting as reservoirs and therefore very important for conservation of fish biodiversity. Despite the socio-economic importance and uniqueness of these satellite lakes little research on socio-economic studies has been carried out. The sustainability of the lake is being threatened by increasing human activities. The fish stocks and species diversity are declining and this poses a threat to the livelihood of the people who depend on fish for food and income. Arising from this need a study was carried out to establish the socio-economic aspects of Nabugabo fisheries and implications for management, on which basis resource users would be made aware of the impacts of their activities. It was hoped that this would go further to ensure wise use and management of the resources by the users. The specific objectives were identifying activities around the lake, establishing socioeconomic values attached to the lake, identifying problems of the lake and resource users and examining existing local based management institutions. Results show that the activities taking place around the lakes include fishing, farming, watering of animals, deforestation and charcoal burning, brick making, resort beach development and food and refreshment. The major problem facing the lake was found to be encroachment of Hippo grass (Vossia) on the lake, which is decreasing the size of the lake, and limiting open waters for fishing (this only applied to Lake Nabugabo). Other important problems include use of illegal fishing methods, declining fish stocks and loss of cultural identity. The resource users are most pressed by the low incomes resulting from poor fish catches, theft of gears and lack of market. On examining the resource base for the lakes, it was only Lake Nabugabo that had a Landing Management Committee. The other three lakes did not have leadership institutions in place except the local councils for the respective villages. This was probably due to observed limited fisheries activities. Majority of the respondents agreed that Government and other service providers should work jointly to supplement local beach management committees in the management of the lakes resources. This is a good gesture because with increase in fishing effort and rampant use of illegal fishing methods, there is need to strengthen management institutions present on the lake. This would require Government, local community and other service providers to work together in a participatory way to control environment-degrading activities and stop the use of illegal fishing methods. Burning of vegetation on the lake should be stopped since it enhances growth of this grass. Finally, traditional taboos; which are present on some of the Nabugabo lakes, should be enhanced, as away of preserving them.

Rapid assessment of the fish biodiversity of the Mburo-Nakivali wetland systems and Opeta-Bisina wetland systems, Uganda

There are 46 different fish species in the Lake Kyoga basin with some of them endemic. The Nile Perch (Lates niloticus) was introduced into the main Lake Kyoga, Nakuwa and Bisina in the late 1950s to increase the fish production. The Nile Perch profileration in lakes Kyoga and Nakuwa led to the almost complete elimination of many native fish species such as Orechromis esculentus and variabilis, Mormyrus kanumme, Schilbe mystus and several Haplochromines species. Lakes Mburo, Kachera, Nakivali and Kijjanebalora are part of the complex system of lakes separated from Lake Victoria by extended swamps known as the Koki lakes, some of the satellite lakes in the Lake Victoria basin. The fisheries of these lakes are important as they contribute to government efforts of increasing food security, poverty reduction and conservation of natural resource base. These lakes are important biodiversity areas because some of these lakes have been found to contain the native tilapiine Oreochromis esculentus (Ngege), absent or threatened with extinction in the main Lakes Victoria and Kyoga. It’s also important to note that this species is only unique to the Victoria and Kyoga lake basins (Graham, 1929, Worthington, 1929). The values of some of these lake fisheries are however, threatened by human activities such as over exploitation, introduction of exotics especially water hyacinth that is already present in River Rwizi and habitat degradation among others.