Jewish legal regulation documents from Lucena in the 11th century

The aim of these pages is to offer a view on the Jewish regulation of Lucena (Cordoba) in the 11th century. Through the legal texts originating from this place, which were conserved in the Cairo Genizah and later guarded at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, it is possible to observe the legal procedure of this group in relation to two essential issues: its consideration of dhimmis, due to its belonging to the ’ahl al-Kitāb or ‘people of the Book’ category, and the internal regulation of the community according to the problems emerged in it. In this article, therefore, the more frequent legal matters derived from the litigations conserved from this city until these dates will be studied.

Financial Inclusion of The Small and Marginal Farmers by the Banking Sector in Kerala

Financial inclusion for inclusive growth is central to the developmental philosophy of most of the nations over the past decade. It has been a priority for policy makers and regulators in financial sector development for improving access and usage of financial services to achieve comprehensive financial inclusion. The initiatives taken towards financial inclusion can promote a more effective and efficient process to achieve significant improvements in financial inclusion are to establish and achieve shared and sustainable development and growth. Realising this, an increasing number of countries are committing to promote financial inclusion, encouraged by the growing body of country level experiences (World Bank, 2012). Financial inclusion basically means, broad based growth through participation as well as sharing the benefits from the growth process along with the under privileged and marginal segments of the economy. Evidence suggests that it has substantial benefits for equitable and sustainable growth. Inclusive growth ensures that while economy grows rapidly, all segments of society are involved in this growth process, ensuring equal opportunities, devoid of any regional or sectoral disparitiesIt is widely acknowledged that the objective ofinclusive growth is accomplished through the process of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion envisages bringing everyone, irrespective of financial status, into the banking fold for the individual progress and development and thereby achieving comprehensive growth with equity

Agricultural microcredit and technical efficiency: The case of smallholder rice farmers in Northern Ghana

In the current study, we compared technical efficiency of smallholder rice farmers with and without credit in northern Ghana using data from a farm household survey. We fitted a stochastic frontier production function to input and output data to measure technical efficiency. We addressed self-selection into credit participation using propensity score matching and found that the mean efficiency did not differ between credit users and non-users. Credit-participating households had an efficiency of 63.0 percent compared to 61.7 percent for non-participants. The results indicate significant inefficiencies in production and thus a high scope for improving farmers’ technical efficiency through better use of available resources at the current level of technology. Apart from labour and capital, all the conventional farm inputs had a significant effect on rice production. The determinants of efficiency included the respondent’s age, sex, educational status, distance to the nearest market, herd ownership, access to irrigation and specialisation in rice production. From a policy perspective, we recommend that the credit should be channelled to farmers who demonstrate the need for it and show the commitment to improve their production through external financing. Such a screening mechanism will ensure that the credit goes to the right farmers who need it to improve their technical efficiency.

Farmers' Resilience to Climate Change in the Welsh Marshes

Climate change will exacerbate challenges facing food security in the UK. Increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events will further impact upon farm systems. At the heart of the impending challenges to UK agricultural production, farmers’ resilience will be tested to new limits. Research into farmers’ resilience to climate change in the UK is distinctly underdeveloped when compared to research in developing and other developed nations. This research gap is addressed through exploration of farmers’ resilience in the Welsh Marches, establishing the role of risk perceptions, local knowledge and adaptive capacity in farmers’ decision-making to limit climate shocks. Further contributions to agricultural geography are made through experimentation of a ‘cultural-behavioural approach’, seeking to revisit the behavioural approach in view of the cultural-turn. The Welsh Marches, situated on the English-Welsh border, has been selected as a focal point due to its agricultural diversity, and known experiences of extreme weather events. A phased mixed methodological approach is adopted. Phase one explores recorded and reported experiences of past extreme weather events in local meteorological records and local newspaper articles. Phase two consists of 115 survey-questionnaires, 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews, and a scenario based focus group with selected farmers from the Welsh Marches. This allows farmers’ resilience to climate change in the past, present and future to be explored. Original contributions to knowledge are made through demonstrating the value of focusing upon the culture of a specific farm community, applying a ‘bottom-up’ approach. The priority given to the weather in farmers’ decision-making is identified to be determined by individual relationships that farmers’ develop with the weather. Yet, a consensus of farmers’ observations has established recognition of considerable changes in the weather over the last 30 years, acknowledging more extremes and seasonal variations. In contrast, perceptions of future climate change are largely varied. Farmers are found to be disengaged with the communication of climate change science, as the global impacts portrayed are distant in time and place from probable impacts that may be experienced locally. Current communication of climate change information has been identified to alienate farmers from the local reality of probable future impacts. Adaptation options and responses to extreme weather and climate change are identified from measures found to be already implemented and considered for the future. A greater need to explore local knowledge and risk perception in relation to farmers’ understanding of future climate challenges is clear. There is a need to conduct comparable research in different farm communities across the UK. Progression into establishing the role of farmers’ resilience in responding effectively to future climate challenges has only just begun.

"You Don't Have to be Filmish": The Toronto Jewish Film Festival

The Toronto Jewish Film Festival is a one-week celebration of Judaism and Cinema that occurs in downtown Toronto, at the Bloor Cinema, early every May. The folkloristic literature on festival notes that these kinds of events are ways that communities and groups celebrate themselves, and although film festivals are frequently excluded from consideration of traditional festivity, I shall demonstrate that such an omission is unfortunate, since like traditional festivity, film festivals, in particular ethnic film festivals, explore the same issues of liminality for the celebrating culture.

Farmers’ knowledge and use of soil fauna in agriculture: a worldwide review

General knowledge of the small, invisible, or hidden organisms that make soil one of the most biodiverse habitats on Earth is thought to be scarce, despite their importance in food systems and agricultural production. We provide the first worldwide review of high-quality research that reports on farmers’ knowledge of soil organisms in agriculture. The depth of farmers’ knowledge varied; some farming communities held detailed local taxonomies and observations of soil biota, or used soil biological activity as indicators of soil fertility, while others were largely unaware of soil fauna. Elicitation of soil biota knowledge was often incidental to the main research goal in many of the reviewed studies. Farmers are rarely deliberately or deeply consulted by researchers on their existing knowledge of soil biota, soil ecology, or soil ecological processes. Deeper understanding of how farmers use and value soil life can lead to more effective development of collaborative extension programs, policies, and management initiatives directed at maintaining healthy, living soils.

The Welsh Marches: Resilient Farmers? Exploring Farmers' Resilience to Extreme Weather Events in the Recent Past

In the 21st century climate change will cause a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across Europe. Investigating farmers’ resilience to extreme weather events in the past can be used to establish the inherent level of resilience farmers’ will have to respond to comparable events in the future. The Welsh Marches has experienced a range of extreme weather events including: heatwaves, flooding; prolonged rainfall; and heavy snowfall. To identify the resilience of farmers in the Marches farmers’ apparent vulnerabilities, coping capacity, social capital and adaptive capacity that have been exposed in past events are discussed. Rural isolation is identified as an exacerbating factor of farming vulnerability. Yet, this is also an apparent source of resilience as farmers are found to rely on high social capital to assist each other in emergency and challenging situations during extreme weather events. The paper concludes by indicating that more localised studies are required, situated within unique farming cultures. This will enable a more complete picture of farmers’ resilience across Europe to be established.

Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Recipe Cards

These are cards giving recipes for fruit and vegetable dishes. Recipes include: confetti bean salsa, Mediterranean quinoa salad, minty watermelon cucumber salad, quick refrigerator pickles, broccoli salad, apple, cranberry and almond coleslaw, farmers’ market pasta salad, roasted beet and butter bean hummus, spinach and strawberry pecan salad, okra, avocado and tomato salad, plum-berry mint smoothie and crispy baked vegetables.

How Long the Night : A Novel ; followed by an essay ‘The Ghosts of Muranów: Confronting Poland’s Jewish Past’

My novel, 'How Long the Night,' and my essay, ‘The Ghosts of Muranów: Confronting Poland’s Jewish Past,’ focus on the relationship between urban space, memory and identity. Before the Second World War Muranów was one of the largest Jewish districts in Europe. In August 1939 Poland’s capital was home to 380,000 Jews, which accounted for about 30 percent of the city’s total population. During the war the district was the central part of the Warsaw Ghetto located near the Umschlagplatz, the place from which Jews were transported to concentration camps. After the failed uprising in 1943 the Nazis burnt the entire quarter to the ground. There was nothing left, except for heaps of rubble. The debris was to be the foundation on which the new socialist realist residential district would stand. The new Muranów, erected on the ashes of the former ghetto, is a space of absence, emptiness and repressed guilt. There are no physical traces of the Jewish presence in the area, except for commemorative plaques, monuments or obelisks. Former tenement houses, shops, synagogues are gone; street names and their layout are different as well. Nevertheless, the former Jewish district is present in images, dreams (or nightmares), in fantasies, memories and stories. My novel and my essay explore the connection between place, history, memory and trauma. The space of Muranów becomes a symbolic trigger for investigation and re-examination of the forgotten or suppressed past. What is more, the novel examines the way a foreign language serves as a tool through which painful and repressed stories can be (re)told.

Perceptions of climate change, environmental variability and the role of agricultural adaptation strategies by small-scale farmers in Africa: the case of Mwanga district in Northern Tanzania

Abstract The potential impacts of climate change and environmental variability are already evident in most parts of the world, which is witnessing increasing temperature rates and prolonged flood or drought conditions that affect agriculture activities and nature-dependent livelihoods. This study was conducted in Mwanga District in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania to assess the nature and impacts of climate change and environmental variability on agriculture-dependent livelihoods and the adaptation strategies adopted by small-scale rural farmers. To attain its objective, the study employed a mixed methods approach in which both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used. The study shows that farmers are highly aware of their local environment and are conscious of the ways environmental changes affect their livelihoods. Farmers perceived that changes in climatic variables such as rainfall and temperature had occurred in their area over the period of three decades, and associated these changes with climate change and environmental variability. Farmers’ perceptions were confirmed by the evidence from rainfall and temperature data obtained from local and national weather stations, which showed that temperature and rainfall in the study area had become more variable over the past three decades. Farmers’ knowledge and perceptions of climate change vary depending on the location, age and gender of the respondents. The findings show that the farmers have limited understanding of the causes of climatic conditions and environmental variability, as some respondents associated climate change and environmental variability with social, cultural and religious factors. This study suggests that, despite the changing climatic conditions and environmental variability, farmers have developed and implemented a number of agriculture adaptation strategies that enable them to reduce their vulnerability to the changing conditions. The findings show that agriculture adaptation strategies employ both planned and autonomous adaptation strategies. However, the study shows that increasing drought conditions, rainfall variability, declining soil fertility and use of cheap farming technology are among the challenges that limit effective implementation of agriculture adaptation strategies. This study recommends further research on the varieties of drought-resilient crops, the development of small-scale irrigation schemes to reduce dependence on rain-fed agriculture, and the improvement of crop production in a given plot of land. In respect of the development of adaptation strategies, the study recommends the involvement of the local farmers and consideration of their knowledge and experience in the farming activities as well as the conditions of their local environment. Thus, the findings of this study may be helpful at various levels of decision making with regard to the development of climate change and environmental variability policies and strategies towards reducing farmers’ vulnerability to current and expected future changes.

Civil & criminal procedure of Jewish courts /

Excerpt: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Students' annual. v. 1, 1914.

Ocular injuries and eye care seeking patterns following injuries among cocoa farmers in Ghana.

Background: The work environment of cocoa farmers exposes them to several ocular hazards that predispose them to eye diseases and injuries. However, the extent of ocular injuries and health seeking patterns following these injuries are unknown among cocoa farmers in Ghana. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of ocular injuries and health seeking behaviour following injury among cocoa farmers in Ghana. Methods: Five hundred and fifty six participants were recruited through simple random sampling using a multistage approach from four cocoa growing districts in Ghana. A structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant information such as demography, ocular hazards and injuries experienced. An ocular examination was also conducted to assess the eye health of the participants. Descriptive and regression statistics were used to analyze the data. The rate of ocular injuries was calculated by using the number of injuries reported that resulted in lost work time/days divided by the number of worker years at risk of injury (sum of years worked in cocoa farms for all the participants). Results: The rate of ocular injuries was 11.3/1000 worker years (95% CI: 9.4 - 31) which led to lost work time of 37.3/1000 worker years (95% CI: 34.1 - 40.8). The major causes of ocular injury were plants/branches (n=73, 51.1%), chemicals (n=27, 18.9%), cocoa pod/husk (n=14, 9.8%) and occurred mostly during weeding, harvesting and chemical spraying. Few (n=34, 6.1%) participants reported the use of ocular protection. Fifty-five (38.5%) participants visited the local chemical shops, while 37 (25.9%) visited hospitals/clinics for ocular treatment of their injuries. Conclusion: There is a high rate of ocular injuries among cocoa farmers who make insufficient use of appropriate eye care services. There is the need for eye health education among cocoa farmers in Ghana. Keywords:

THE PROSPECT OF BIOGAS AMONG SMALL-HOLDER DAIRY GOAT FARMERS IN THE ULUGURU MOUNTAINS, TANZANIA

Biogas can be a clean cooking alternative where biomass is the dominant source of cooking energy and where feedstock for anaerobic digestion is available. By substituting woody biomass for energy, biogas may reduce local deforestation. Tanzania has more than 15.6 million goats. Dairy goats of different breeds are found in the mid- to high altitudes of the country. Population density has made firewood increasingly scarce and there are few energy alternatives in mountainous areas such as in the Uluguru Mountains. In Mgeta ward, Morogoro region, introduction of Norwegian dairy goats in the 1980s has improved livelihoods in the area. In this study, goat manure was assessed as feedstock for biogas and as fertilizer. Field work among small-holder dairy goat farmers in Mgeta was conducted to measure daily manure production, and to provide a basic model for prediction of the quantity of droppings which may be collected by farmers. Biogas and fertilizer potential from goat manure was compared to cow and pig manure. Buswell’s formula was used to calculate approximate methane yield. The results show that goat manure from Mgeta can yield 167 l∙kg Volatile Solids-1 (VS). Compared with other substrates approximate methane yield can be ranked as pig > guatemala grass > cow > goat. The average goat of 25 kg in Mgeta leaves 61 kg Total Solids (TS) droppings per year. It was estimated that 15 goats capita-1 would be required to meet the total cooking energy needs of small-holder households in the study location. N:P:K content in goat manure (TS) is 2:1:1, similar to cow and pig manure. Goat droppings had to be macerated to reduce particle size for anaerobic digestion. Biogas from dairy goats could be combined with the year-round irrigated horticulture production in Mgeta. Vegetable gardens in the slope below the digesters could be fertilized by gravitation with the NH4+-rich bioslurry, to save labour and increase yields.