agriculture testing Articles | Agriculture XPRT

A test of agricultural labour market efficiency in the Gezira scheme, Sudan: a production function approach

This study is concerned with testing the efficiency of the rural labour market in the Gezira scheme. One hundred and fifty respondents were randomly selected through a field survey during the 2003?2004 season. A Cobb-Douglas production function was fitted to the data. The results indicated that labour markets in Gezira do not behave as predicted by the neoclassical theory. Labour allocations are ...

Oct. 11, 2007

By Inderscience Publishers

Competitiveness and environmental policies for agriculture: testing the Porter hypothesis

Porter hypothesis suggests tougher environmental regulations could spur technological growth, leading to an increase in productivity of market outputs, simultaneously providing greater environmental protection. This study tests the Porter hypothesis in US agriculture using state level data from 1973 through 1996. Luenberger productivity indexes, which are dual to the profit function and do not ...

Jan. 23, 2005

By Inderscience Publishers

Removal of acid dyes from aqueous solutions using orange peel as a sorbent material

An agricultural by-product waste, orange peel, was tested for the removal of four acid dyes from aqueous solutions in batch conditions. As results obtained, kinetics of dyes sorption was time of contact, initial dyes concentration and dyes type dependent. The pseudo second-order reaction rate model adequately described the kinetics of dyes sorption with high correlation coefficients. A. Langmuir ...

Oct. 16, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

HRC Pilot Test Reduces Fertilizer Contamination at an Agricultural Facility

Site Summary Ammonia nitrate is the most common chemical used in fertilizers, providing nitrogen to plants for growth. Dichloropropane (DCP) has also become popular in agriculture as the most common pesticide sprayed on fruit and nut crops to control nematodes. When released into groundwater, nitrate and DCP can be hazardous to human health. A distributing facility in Northern California housed ...

Dec. 31, 2003

By Regenesis

Assessing the prediction capacity of an agricultural supply positive mathematical programming model

In this paper, the calibration and prediction capacity of a supply response positive mathematical programming model (PMP) for the Alentejo region are evaluated. The model is calibrated with prices and agricultural subsidies of the base year (2000), using the specification rules of the cost function standard, Paris standard, average cost and exogenous elasticities. Then, the model is utilised for ...

Apr. 24, 2011

By Inderscience Publishers

The efficacy of disinfectants against plant pathogens

In late 2015, a journal article from the European Journal of Plant Pathology was published on research regarding the efficacy of different disinfectants against plant pathogens in irrigation water. All testing as done by the Department of Primary Industries here in Australia for the horticulture and agriculture industries. The disinfectants tested included chlorine, chlorine dioxide (using ...

Feb. 8, 2017

By NW Solutions

New drying systems for crops

Drying of agricultural products is an energy intensive operation. High prices and shortages in fossil fuels increase the emphasis on using solar energy as an alternative energy source, especially in developing countries. This paper deals with the construction of four different solar powered drying systems consisting of solar air heaters and drying chambers for small scale, natural convection, ...

Feb. 11, 2004

By Inderscience Publishers

Method, creativity and CIALs

CIALs (Committees For Local Agricultural Research) are community level organisations for helping agricultural scientists and farmers to collaborate on adaptive research. Although CIALs have been used mainly for testing new crops and varieties, an unorthodox project in Peru and Bolivia recently used CIALs with a range of research techniques: formal trials, participatory research and farmers' own ...

Nov. 22, 2005

By Inderscience Publishers

Statistical evaluation of the early-stage development of Jatropha energy plantations in Northeastern Mexico

A systematic evaluation of agricultural factors affecting the adaptation of the tropical oil plant Jatropha curcas L. to the semi-arid subtropical climate in Northeastern Mexico has been conducted. The factors studied include plant density and topology, as well as fungi and virus abundances. A multiple regression analysis shows that total fruit production can be well predicted by the area per ...

Nov. 10, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

Recent Papers on Water Reuse in Irrigation and Agriculture

The long-term goal of this research is to develop the infra-technologies to reclaim effluents from wastewater treatment plants and reuse them for agricultural water demands. The objectives of this were: 1) to study the effects of various wastewater treatment levels on crop growth and yields; 2) to determine the pollution loads from wastewater ...

Mar. 18, 2012

By IWA Publishing

Glyphosate-based herbicides on weeds management and maize performance under conservation agriculture practices in eastern Kenya

A three-season research study was conducted at Embu Agricultural Research Station farm to determine the effect of glyphosate-based herbicides on weeds management and maize ( Zea mays L. ) performance under zero-tillage conservation agriculture practice. Glyphosate herbicide sprays were prepared from Roundup Turbo product at the rate of 2.5 L ha –1 and Roundup Weathermax at 1.5, 2.5 ...

Jul. 29, 2014

By Inderscience Publishers

Trend analysis in climatic variables and impacts on rice yield in Nigeria

The effects of changes in meteorological parameters on rice yield variations were considered. Weather parameters, temperature (T), rainfall (R), relative humidity (RH) and solar radiation (SR), and rice yield variation for Ibadan were analyzed. Meteorological parameters were obtained from the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture while rice yield data were obtained from the Africa ...

Mar. 24, 2015

By IWA Publishing

Hot spots in animal agriculture, emerging federal environmental policies and the potential for efficiency and innovation offsets

In North America and Northern Europe, high livestock densities in concentrated areas (hot spots) have led to manure surpluses, which have resulted in water pollution problems. Using the emerging policy objectives for animal waste in the European Union and the USA as a backdrop, this paper discusses the impact of environmental regulation on farm profits. A theoretical model of the farm is ...

Feb. 23, 2004

By Inderscience Publishers

The economic impacts of second generation Bt cotton in West Africa: empirical evidence from Burkina Faso

West Africa has been slow in adopting agricultural biotechnology. The most progressive stance has been taken by Burkina Faso, which began field testing Bt cotton in 2003. This paper reports the first three years of Bt cotton field trials, which found that Bt cotton increased cotton yields by an average of 20% and reduced insecticide applications by two-thirds. While the technical success of Bt ...

May 18, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

The transport of three emerging pollutants through an agricultural soil irrigated with untreated wastewater

The aim of this work was to determine the mobility of naproxen, carbamazepine, and triclosan through a wastewater-irrigated agricultural soil. Transport experiments were carried out using undisturbed soil columns taken at 10 and 40 cm depths. The mobilization of the pollutants was evaluated using two hydrological regimes transient flow for superficial columns and steady-state conditions for the ...

Mar. 10, 2014

By IWA Publishing

Application of L-moment for evaluating drought indices of cumulative precipitation deficit (CPD) and maximum precipitation deficit (MPD) based on regional frequency analysis

Two indices of cumulative precipitation deficit and maximum precipitation deficit are used for assessing the severity of drought of a certain year such that a regional frequency analysis has been carried out by L-moment. In this paper, 11 synoptic stations in Isfahan province, Iran with a semi-arid environment have been used. Hosking homogeneity test is applied for identifying a homogeneous ...

Jun. 20, 2011

By Inderscience Publishers

Turning metal into plastic - Case Study

The Client Challenge Engineers at CNH, a large manufacturer of agricultural equipment, were tasked with examining each part in CNH's equipment and reducing costs - without sacrificing product life or durability. The supplying distributor relied on Diversified Plastics to help them meet the challenge. The Diversified Plastics Solution We sat down with both the ...

Apr. 9, 2015

By Diversified Plastics, Inc.

<italic>In-situ</italic> comparison of phosphorus losses between organic and inorganic fertilizers

In-situ comparison of phosphorus losses between organic and inorganic fertilizers

Phosphorus (P) is one of the limiting factors of eutrophication. P added to soil from fertilizer application could pose a threat to water quality. According to agricultural habits, swine manure (SM), oil cake (OC), biogas slurry (BS), commercial organic fertilizer (OF) and compound fertilizer (CF) were selected to compare their P losses on a slope-land under natural rainfall. The results showed ...

Dec. 14, 2014

By IWA Publishing

Sulphur mineralization kinetics of cattle manure and green waste compost in soils

Sulphur mineralization of cattle manure (CM) and green waste compost (GWC) added to six agricultural soils with different chemical properties was monitored over 10 weeks in a laboratory incubation experiment. Although the amount of sulphur was higher in CM than in GWC, the cumulative SO4 2--S values in GWC-treated soils were higher than in soil amended with CM. The percentages of mineralized S ...

Dec. 31, 2005

By SAGE Publications Ltd

A novel system of indicators for evaluating system resilience of regional agricultural water resources

Constructing a reasonable evaluation index system is important for characterizing water and land resources and for ecological restoration. To solve random and incomplete problems using a traditional evaluation index system, a novel model for evaluating regional agricultural water resources using a resilience index system was proposed. In addition, a new method for an evaluation index system ...

May 17, 2017

By IWA Publishing

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