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Agricultural and applied economists have maintained a public discourse at the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) meetings and subsequently published papers discussing the mission of land‐grant institutions and the role of AAEA members in that mission. With a content analysis of 4001 Invited Papers and Presidential Speeches, we find agricultural and applied economists questioned their profession's purpose and role within the land‐grant system. The reflective questions still apply to land‐grant institutions and the agricultural and applied economics profession. We argue that AAEA members are crucial in addressing the food and agricultural challenges connected to society's deepest needs today and into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the effects of a waste paper product on soil phosphorus, carbon, and bulk density. Soil test values for phosphorus have increased due to the applications of manures to agricultural fields in the United States. Because of the application, there is a probability that phosphorus will be in the surface water. The effect will be the degradation of water quality. The danger of phosphorus transport to surface water may be lowered through the application of waste paper on soils with high soil test phosphorus. In Booneville, Arizona, a test was conducted to show the effects of adding waste paper product on soil phosphorus, carbon, and bulk density.

Farmers constitute a large professional group worldwide. In developed countries farms tend to become larger, with a concentration of farm operations. Animal farming has been associated with negative respiratory effects such as work-related asthma and rhinitis. However, being born and raised or working on a farm reduces the risk of atopic asthma and rhinitis later in life. A risk of chronic bronchitis and bronchial obstruction/COPD has been reported in confinement buildings and livestock farmers. This position paper reviews the literature linking exposure information to intensive animal farming and the risk of work-related respiratory diseases and focuses on prevention. Animal farming is associated with exposure to organic dust containing allergens and microbial matter including alive microorganisms and viruses, endotoxins and other factors like irritant gases such as ammonia and disinfectants. These exposures have been identified as specific agents/risk factors of asthma, rhinitis, chronic bronchitis, COPD and reduced FEV1. Published studies on dust and endotoxin exposure in livestock farmers do not show a downward trend in exposure over the last 30 years, suggesting that the workforce in these industries is still overexposed and at risk of developing respiratory disease. In cases of occupational asthma and rhinitis, avoidance of further exposure to causal agents is recommended, but it may not be obtainable in agriculture, mainly due to socio-economic considerations. Hence, there is an urgent need for focus on farming exposure in order to protect farmers and others at work in these and related industries from developing respiratory diseases and allergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers constitute a large professional group worldwide. In developed countries farms tend to become larger, with a concentration of farm operations. Animal farming has been associated with negative respiratory effects such as work‐related asthma and rhinitis. However, being born and raised or working on a farm reduces the risk of atopic asthma and rhinitis later in life. A risk of chronic bronchitis and bronchial obstruction/COPD has been reported in confinement buildings and livestock farmers. This position paper reviews the literature linking exposure information to intensive animal farming and the risk of work‐related respiratory diseases and focuses on prevention. Animal farming is associated with exposure to organic dust containing allergens and microbial matter including alive microorganisms and viruses, endotoxins and other factors like irritant gases such as ammonia and disinfectants. These exposures have been identified as specific agents/risk factors of asthma, rhinitis, chronic bronchitis, COPD and reduced FEV1. Published studies on dust and endotoxin exposure in livestock farmers do not show a downward trend in exposure over the last 30 years, suggesting that the workforce in these industries is still overexposed and at risk of developing respiratory disease. In cases of occupational asthma and rhinitis, avoidance of further exposure to causal agents is recommended, but it may not be obtainable in agriculture, mainly due to socio‐economic considerations. Hence, there is an urgent need for focus on farming exposure in order to protect farmers and others at work in these and related industries from developing respiratory diseases and allergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overall picture of women's representation and gender parity in the field of Agricultural Economics by constructing and analyzing a database of agricultural economists in China. We find that female scholars "occupy half the sky" in number, but not all the way up to the higher‐ranking academic positions. Women lag behind men in terms of research performance and academic promotion; even more so, gender disparity becomes more prominent when moving up the ranking ladder. A closer examination of agricultural economists of different age cohorts indicates that the gender gap, both in numbers engaged in the profession and academic performance measured by Chinese paper publications and nation‐level projects chaired, is narrowing. However, gaps in the number of high‐quality paper publications and the time span before promotion, alongside the phenomenon of a "leaky pipeline" in academia, are growing significantly over time. The representation of "star scientists" shows similar, yet steeper trends. In the absence of detailed studies, the paper explores possible explanations of the converging gender gap in scale but increasing gender disparity that is termed a "leaky pipeline." It concludes that the Policy of Enrollment Expansion in Higher Education provides vulnerable young females with more opportunities to access higher education, which increases both the number and proportion of women in the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting foodborne contamination is a critical challenge in ensuring food safety and preventing human suffering and economic losses. Contaminated food, comprising biological agents (e.g. bacteria, viruses and fungi) and chemicals (e.g. toxins, allergens, antibiotics and heavy metals), poses significant risks to public health. Microfluidic technology has emerged as a transformative solution, revolutionizing the detection of contaminants with precise and efficient methodologies. By manipulating minute volumes of fluid on miniaturized systems, microfluidics enables the creation of portable chips for biosensing applications. Advancements from early glass and silicon devices to modern polymers and cellulose‐based chips have significantly enhanced microfluidic technology, offering adaptability, flexibility, cost‐effectiveness and biocompatibility. Microfluidic systems integrate seamlessly with various biosensing reactions, facilitating nucleic acid amplification, target analyte recognition and accurate signal readouts. As research progresses, microfluidic technology is poised to play a pivotal role in addressing evolving challenges in the detection of foodborne contaminants. In this short review, we delve into various manufacturing materials for state‐of‐the‐art microfluidic devices, including inorganics, elastomers, thermoplastics and paper. Additionally, we examine several applications where microfluidic technology offers unique advantages in the detection of food contaminants, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, allergens and more. This review underscores the significant advancement of microfluidic technology and its pivotal role in advancing the detection and mitigation of foodborne contaminants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many ecosystems have been transformed, or degraded by human use, and restoration offers an opportunity to recover services and benefits, not to mention intrinsic values. We assessed whether restoration scientists and practitioners use their projects to demonstrate the benefits restoration can provide in their peer-reviewed publications. We evaluated a sample of the academic literature to determine whether links are made explicit between ecological restoration, society, and public policy related to natural capital. We analyzed 1,582 peer-reviewed papers dealing with ecological restoration published between 1 January 2000 and 30 September 2008 in 13 leading scientific journals. As selection criterion, we considered papers that contained either “restoration” or “rehabilitation” in their title, abstract, or keywords. Furthermore, as one-third of the papers were published in Restoration Ecology, we used that journal as a reference for comparison with all the other journals. We readily acknowledge that aquatic ecosystems are under-represented, and that the largely inaccessible gray literature was ignored. Within these constraints, we found clear evidence that restoration practitioners are failing to signal links between ecological restoration, society, and policy, and are underselling the evidence of benefits of restoration as a worthwhile investment for society. We discuss this assertion and illustrate it with samples of our findings—with regards to (1) the geographical and institutional affiliations of authors; (2) the choice of ecosystems studied, methods employed, monitoring schemes applied, and the spatial scale of studies; and (3) weak links to payments for ecosystem service setups, agriculture, and ramifications for public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Chronic malnutrition remains a persistent global health issue. This mixed methods investigation in rural Peru examines the role of home food production (HFP) in reducing child malnutrition by testing the following hypotheses: (a) higher HFP will be associated with higher infant z-scores than those with less HFP and (b) infants with higher HFP will exhibit improved longitudinal growth outcomes across 6 months., Methods: Ethnographic methods include semi-structured interviews and participant observation. A household survey and anthropometric data were collected twice, from 86 infants under of 24 months old. A HFP index (HFI) was generated based on reports of animals for meat consumption, eggs, milk, and agricultural products for home consumption. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to examine patterns of HFI and infant anthropometrics. Multivariate regressions were used to examine the relationships between HFP and infant height for age (HAZ), weight for age (WAZ), and triceps skinfold for age (TSAZ) in both rounds and 6-month change between rounds (6MΔ)., Results: There were no relationships between HFI and infant z-scores in round one, however, HFI was significantly positively related to HAZ (B = 0.091, P < .039) in round two and with 6MΔ in HAZ (B = 0.09, P < .047). HFI did not predict WAZ or TSAZ in either round., Conclusions: HFP represents an important influence of infant growth in Nuñoa, likely through nutritional improvement due to increased availability of animal-sourced foods and through contribution to household economy and maternal empowerment., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

This paper assesses the shifting locations and social significance of agricultural spaces through analyses of intensive pedestrian survey results, multi‐spectral remote sensing data, and Medieval Period inscriptional records around the site of Maski (Raichur District, Karnataka). In doing so, it challenges a longstanding historiographical trope about the social history and essential "fertility" of the Raichur Doab, a region of the central Deccan of southern India that was ostensibly contested for its rich agricultural resources by numerous imperial polities throughout the Medieval and Early Modern Periods. The results suggest that cultivation was extended into the region's more marginal production environments between the 11th and 14th centuries. Moreover, the process of agricultural expansion appears to have partly contributed to fomenting social concerns about the effects of temple patronage as many of the region's underclass farmers faced multiple modes of precarity, including those engendered by new labor and cultivation conditions in the semi‐arid Deccan. In that sense, the paper also expands on contemporary notions of precarity and highlights the significance of a variety of ways through which conditions of precarity might emerge in other historical contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the 26th Conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economics (IAAE) is presented. Papers focused on the prospects for reducing hunger and poverty by means of either targeted support measures or by initiating ways to improve the access of the poor people on factor markets and institutions. Meanwhile, another paper offers a stylized microsimulation model with material from a remote village in Northern Ethiopia.

Climate variability has increased the frequency of disasters and affected the livelihood of the people to a greater extent. Therefore, livelihood vulnerability assessment assumes greater significance for understanding the interlinkages between climate variability induced disasters and livelihood pattern. In this paper, an attempt has been made to trace knowledge gaps, examine trends of research, and suggest future direction. We first collected 191 papers in the domain from Web of Science and Google scholar search engines from 1999 to 2019. Descriptive and thematic attributes of these papers were reviewed for identifying the missing links between climate variability and livelihood vulnerability and recommending future research action. Findings revealed that most of the studies were conducted at the local and regional level where the agricultural sector has taken dominance over other sectors. There is limited interdisciplinary coordination on the subject leading to limited cross‐scale interactions. Geographically, more studies were carried out in the plains. Future research should focus on mountains and coastal areas. Forest, aquaculture, and dairy farming should accord priority in such ecosystems. Empirical studies with an interdisciplinary approach need to be carried out for livelihood vulnerability assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An estimated two billion people do not have sufficient access to nutritious food, and nearly half are dependent on small‐scale and subsistence farming. Projections show that the global population is not on track to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. With this in mind, development actors are increasingly seeking to better integrate rural farmers into agricultural markets. This synthesis of the literature can help to inform policy decisions to improve outcomes for smallholder farmers in low‐ and middle‐income countries, and to enable the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. This work is the most comprehensive and up‐to‐date review synthesizing evidence from 262 interventions. Objectives: The purpose of this systematic review is to appraise and synthesize evidence of the effects of five types of interventions facilitating farmers' access to output markets in low‐ and middle‐income countries. We examine how these effects vary across contexts and subgroups. We also identify evidence on program costs and evidence gaps in the literature. Search Methods: The search of included studies was based on nine major databases/search engines and 25 institutional websites, using a set of English search terms. We also conducted forward and backward citation tracking of literature, published a public call for papers, and contacted key experts. Selection Criteria: We included studies on the effects of five types of output market access interventions, focusing on participants residing in low‐ and middle‐income countries: (1) Farm‐to‐market transport infrastructure interventions; (2) Access to output market information interventions; (3) New marketplaces or alternative marketing opportunities interventions; (4) Contract farming interventions; (5) Improved storage infrastructure and technologies interventions. We included published and unpublished studies from 2000 onwards, with experimental and quasi‐experimental study designs focusing on relevant outcomes. Data Collection and Analysis: We screened 52,366 studies, identifying a total of 439 papers representing 289 unique studies on the effects of 262 interventions in 53 countries. Data extraction and risk of bias assessments were completed by two independent reviewers. Main Results: All five types of output market access interventions resulted in small‐to‐moderate positive effects on almost all measures of market participation, agricultural production, and welfare outcomes. These improvements occurred through a reduction in transaction costs, adoption of improved practices, greater farm investment, access to higher prices for farmers, greater volume sold, and increased farm income. Effects vary by intervention type. However, the body of evidence is comprised of a large share of included studies with a high risk of bias. Few studies have information on the cost of interventions, and there are gaps in the available evidence. Authors' Conclusions: Output market access interventions are effective in reducing transaction costs and addressing market failures, thereby leading to higher income levels. Evidence of effects on food security and nutrition is sparse and has not provided conclusive findings. We also found that multi‐component interventions are not necessarily more effective than single component interventions. The specific needs and dynamics of each context should inform the choice of the intervention and approach. Investments in additional research with low risk of selection bias and confounding effects will improve the evidence base, especially for outcomes that constitute gaps in the literature. For example, the effects on quality of agricultural products and group participation are under‐researched, and we did not find any included studies focusing on North Africa or the Middle East. Collecting and reporting information on interventions' cost‐effectiveness will help decision‐makers to prioritize limited resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Two main problems the globe currently facing are migration and weather variation. Weather change has a significant impact on the agricultural industry, which affects the majority of poor people. There is a dearth of adequate methodological documentation when examining the relationship between weather variation, agricultural output, and migration. We aimed to identify methodological reporting difficulties by reviewing the quantitative literature on weather‐related migration through agricultural channels. Methods: A systematic evaluation was conducted using papers published between January 2010 and June 2022, indexed in the SCOPUS, PUBMED, and Google Scholar databases. Using inclusion/exclusion criteria, we selected 22 original research articles out of 18,929 distinct articles for review, in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. We extracted data from each study to understand how various concepts, research designs, and investigative techniques influence our understanding of migration patterns related to weather in the agricultural sector. Results: The majority (64%) of the study's data consisted of time series data. In 50% of the studies, secondary data were used. Additionally, 55% of these studies did not state the sample size. In 40% of the studies, model assumptions were fully adhered to, whereas in 36% of the studies, they were not followed at all. The majority of the articles used the Ordinary Least Squares technique, while about 41% applied the Two‐Stage Least Squares technique. Various tests were conducted across these studies, such as robustness checks (59.1%), endogeneity tests (31.8%), omitted variable bias tests (22.7%), sensitivity analyses (22.7%), and weak instrument tests (13.6%), to name a few. In the research we selected, the methodology section had various shortcomings and lacked organization. Furthermore, the justifications for deviations from model assumptions were unclear, potentially affecting the study outcomes. Conclusion: This study has important indications for researchers in studying climatic (weather) migration through agricultural channels besides for policymakers by giving a thorough review of the methods and techniques. Key points: Providing narrative insights on how various issues, research designs, and analytical techniques shape our understanding of the association between weather variation and migration via agricultural production.Providing a broad overview of the pertinent literature, covering 22 articles, as a complement to earlier studies.Our study has important ramifications for researchers studying climatic (weather) migration through agricultural channels as well as for policymakers by giving a thorough review of the methods and techniques currently used in this sector.Future studies on weather variation, agricultural production, and migration should use prudent and comparable models that capture whole climatic (weather) impacts on migration through mediating factors like agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Moisture detection through naked eye is important in various fields, including pharmaceuticals, fuels, materials, and agriculture. In this study, we demonstrate the use of a strategically designed organic molecule, 2AMBP, for the detection of moisture in organic solvents and real‐life samples. The principle behind this sensory system involves fluoride‐induced deprotonation followed by water‐induced re‐protonation. The deprotonated form of 2AMBP displays a color‐changing response (yellow to pink) even in trace amounts of water (LOD: 0.0207 % by spectrophotometric analysis), making it a highly sensitive probe for detecting moisture. We show that the anionic receptor moieties of 2AMBP can be employed for the quantification of water impurity in various real‐life samples, and we develop inexpensive, reusable, dye‐coated paper sensor for quick onsite moisture detection and quantification. Interestingly, a smart phone camera can be used to provide relative RGB values that directly correlate to the amount of moisture present in the sample. The 2AMBP‐F‐ exhibits significant changes in fluorescence properties in the presence and absence of water, which makes it an effective fluorescent switch for detecting moisture. Overall, 2AMBP is a highly sensitive, sustainable material that can be conveniently used by laymen for moisture detection without the need for specific instruments or expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Mating frequency of Vespa analis queens and the genetic relatedness of their workers was analyzed by DNA microsatellite genotyping. Of 20 colonies studied, 18 had a queen inseminated by a single male and two had queens each inseminated by two males. The estimated effective number of matings was 1.05 ± 0.037 (mean ± SE), with 75–85% of the offspring of the two multiply mated queens sired by a single male. The pedigree relatedness between nestmate workers averaged over the 20 colonies was estimated to be 0.74 ± 0.008, almost identical to the predicted value of 0.75 for colonies headed by a singly mated queen. Multiple matrilines; that is, the presence of workers not related to the current queens, were detected in six colonies, suggesting that queen replacement occurred via usurpation of the founding queens in these six colonies. These results demonstrate that the kin structure of V. analis is similar to that reported in other vespid species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation biological control suppresses pests by promoting established rather than inoculative or mass released natural enemies. Research in this approach has expanded rapidly this century but uptake remains limited. Why? Most of the 150 peer reviewed papers reporting field experiments include results on natural enemies and/or pests. Only a minority report effects on crop damage levels or yield, and very few consider economic consequences. This is despite evidence for potential benefits across this full spectrum of response variables. We argue that the limited scope of work to date constrains the development of a compelling evidence base to demonstrate the field effectiveness of conservation biological control, hampering its uptake so encourage researchers to include the assessment of economic impact in future studies of conservation biological control. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archives can be rich sources of information, yet they are also very often built within the violent processes of empire‐building, setting the stage for how knowledge about colonised places are constructed, disrupted, and how their histories are understood. Archives often tell us more about power and the kinds of knowledge that were important to imperial powers than the people and places disrupted by empire. This necessitates careful consideration of the archive itself, and not simply the information it contains. The relationship between the visual aspects of the archive and the ways that we come to know about colonised sites is the focus of this paper. Focusing on photos of rural Puerto Rico taken after The Depression (circa 1941–1942), this paper builds an understanding of archives as sites that can be transformed into conceptual or imaginary space that exists outside of the original purposes of the archives. This space is reliant on the willingness of those who encounter archives to read beyond what they are presented with. This in turn allows for careful reading of the traces and possibilities inside archives that subvert their seemingly totalising narrative. The relationship between the visual aspects of the archive and the ways that we come to know about colonised sites is the focus of this paper. Focusing on photos of rural Puerto Rico taken after The Depression (circa 1941–1942), this paper builds an understanding of archives as sites that can be transformed into conceptual or imaginary space that exists outside the original purposes of the archives. This space is reliant on the willingness of those who encounter archives to read beyond what they are presented with. This in turn allows for careful reading of the traces and possibilities inside archives that subvert their seemingly totalising narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the climate change aggravating the issues of energy security and food shortage, global agriculture suffers from great pressure, and how to promote sustainable agriculture has become one of the hot issues of concern in academia. This paper focuses on China, where efforts are being made to develop sustainable agriculture, and takes the western part of Shandong Province as the target of study. Based on the identification of factors that affect the promotion of the local circular agriculture implementation, AMOS was applied to construct and test the structural equation model and to explore the interaction mechanism between each variable. The study breaks through the traditional modes of data collection and is based on the actual farming conditions of the farmers currently, choosing to obtain data by means of questionnaires and field surveys. The 24 selected factors were analyzed by SPSS and AMOS software, and the total model weight of each factor were calculated separately. The top five key factors affecting the advancement of the model, namely government policy encouragement, preferential agricultural loans support, participation of specialized agricultural organizations, estimated revenue of the mode and farmers' awareness of environmental protection, are obtained with weight of 6.08%, 5.60%, 5.59%, 5.26% and 5.09%, respectively. Combined with data to focus on analysis, this paper puts forward some relevant countermeasures and suggestions to promote the integrated planting and breeding mode in accordance with local conditions, which can provide beneficial reference for government departments to make relevant policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of health insurance for smallholder farmers in most sub‐Saharan African countries hurts the families and can also negatively affect agriculture production, exports, and tax revenues. This paper analyzes the linkage between medical emergencies and agriculture exports and the corresponding tax revenues for smallholder farmers in Côte d'Ivoire. It uses two complementary datasets: the 2016 Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) smallholder survey and the 2015 Côte d'Ivoire living standard survey. The paper finds that a medical emergency is negatively and significantly associated with a decrease in the likelihood that a smallholder farmer cultivates cocoa of 3.9 percentage points, driving them into poverty and reducing productivity at the lower quantiles. The paper then estimates that medical emergencies can be correlated with the decline in cocoa exports of $853 million and in tax revenues of $125 million, representing 0.2% of the Ivorian gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 has had deep impacts on a wide range of vulnerable communities in Canada. Migrant agricultural workers in the southwestern region of Ontario were particularly impacted. Fearing the threat of the 'racialized foreign other', the Canadian state produced myriad securitization responses with heightened surveillance. This paper will examine both state and non‐state forms of securitization and the response from both workers and activists such as the advocacy group Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW). While there has been ample discussion of how vulnerable migrant agricultural workers were affected during the pandemic, there has been less attention paid to how state policies have heightened and targeted specific groups such as migrant agricultural workers through modes of securitization. Central to this was to ensure that labour needs would be met to ensure the viability of Canada's multi‐billion agricultural industry. This paper shows how securitization and control were vital to ensure no disruptions to production levels and Canada's role as a leading agricultural export producer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we report on the status of graphs in 21 scientific agricultural journals indexed in Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge. We analyze the authors' use of graphs in this context in relation to the quality of these journals as measured by their 2-year impact factors. We note a substantial variability in the use of graphs in this context: For one journal, 100% of the papers include graphs, whereas for others only about 50% of them include graphs. We also show that higher impact agricultural journals publish more papers with graphs and that there are more graphs in these papers than in those in journals with lower impact factors ( r = +0.40). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous and close combination of artificial intelligence technology and agriculture promotes the rapid development of smart agriculture, among which the agricultural robot navigation line recognition algorithm based on deep learning has achieved great success in detection accuracy and detection speed. However, there are still many problems, such as the large size of the algorithm is difficult to deploy in hardware equipment, and the accuracy and speed of crop row detection in real farmland environment are low. To solve the above problems, this paper proposed a navigation line extraction algorithm for corn spraying robot based on YOLOv8s‐CornNet. First, the Convolution (Conv) module and C2f module of YOLOv8s network are replaced with Depthwise Convolution (DWConv) module and PP‐LCNet module respectively to reduce the parameters (Params) and giga floating‐point operations per second of the network, so as to achieve the purpose of network lightweight. Second, to reduce the precision loss caused by network lightweight, the spatial pyramid pooling fast module in the backbone network is changed to atrous spatial pyramid pooling faster module to improve the accuracy of network feature extraction. Meanwhile, normalization‐based attention module is introduced into the network to improve the network's attention to corn plants. Then the corn plant was located by using the midpoint of the corn plant detection box. Finally, the least square method is used to extract the corn crop row line, and the middle line of the corn crop row line is the navigation line of the corn spraying robot. From the experimental results, it can be seen that the navigation line extraction algorithm proposed in this paper ensures both the real‐time and accuracy of the navigation line extraction of the corn spraying robot, which contributes to the development of the visual navigation technology of agricultural robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pine marten (Martes martes) occupies the northernmost extent of its distribution in Norway, where microtine rodents are an important food item. The relationship between microtine rodent abundance and pine marten population dynamics is not well understood. In this paper, we examined this relationship and tested if environmental factors (e.g. snow depth, elevation, mature spruce forest density and agricultural land density) modulate pine marten population dynamics. We calculated pine marten abundance indices using data collected from 593 unique snow transects surveyed between 2003 and 2014 in Hedmark, Norway. We employed a Partial Rate Correlation Function to identify potential cyclicity in pine marten populations. We did not observe any cyclical patterns in pine marten populations within our short time series. Instead, their population appeared to be directly density‐dependent. Although the population growth rate of pine marten tended to increase with increasing elevation, it was not affected by individual variables including a microtine rodent abundance index and snow depth. However, the annual growth rate of pine marten populations was positively affected by the interaction between the microtine rodent abundance index and increasing elevation. Pine marten abundance increased with microtine rodent abundance, elevation, snow depth and density of mature spruce forest, but decreased with increasing agricultural land density. Pine martens are opportunistic diet generalists that can switch between prey and cache food for later consumption. They are also strongly territorial with delayed implantation and are slow to respond to environmental changes due to their relatively low reproductive potential. These life‐history traits may mitigate the effects of fluctuating microtine rodent abundance on pine marten reproduction and survival. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that microtine rodents still serve as important prey which can influence the population dynamics of pine martens in higher elevation habitats where alternative prey may be less available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we identify ancient fields and farming systems in areas where the same spaces of cultivation have been used repeatedly over thousands of years? In the limestone karst landscapes of northern Dalmatia, on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, drystone field walls, terraces, and cairns are common features that attest to generations of working the land for agriculture. While confounding archaeological objects due to complex histories of reuse, drystone terraced field systems throughout the Mediterranean are believed to have roots in ancient and prehistoric land use. Against this backdrop, this paper works to better understand the dynamic patterns and outcomes of field "recycling" through multiple lines of evidence for long‐term changes in cropping patterns and agroecology in multi‐millennial agricultural landscapes of northern Dalmatia. We compare archaeobotanical data from the Ravni Kotari plain to documents of preindustrial land use from the 1826 Franciscan cadastre. We also draw upon contemporary observations of traditionally managed, semi‐wild olive groves on the nearby Adriatic island of Ugljan to better understand the land‐use legacies inherent in the landscapes of northern Dalmatia today. These data show that, despite a relatively static agricultural built environment of field walls and terraces, Dalmatian communities held historically dynamic relationships with domesticated and wild plant ecologies. Prehistoric integration of cereal agriculture with wild forest resources appears to have shifted to commercial‐scale domesticated arboriculture in the Classical period, leaving a multifaceted legacy of commercial agriculture, traditional farming, and rewilding among the contemporary cultural landscapes of Dalmatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we review current understandings of anthropogenic field systems, focusing on trends and variations in the chronology of field construction, use, and in some cases, abandonment, as well as labor organization of agrarian production across the Lake Titicaca Basin. These trends indicate that agricultural intensification increased both during the political centralization of the Tiwanaku state and during periods of political fragmentation. In contrast to prior work on fields in the region, we argue that there was no single cultural, environmental, or historical impetus that ignited the construction of any particular field type. Additionally, we present the results of pedestrian survey of terraces carried out in 2018 in the northern Lake Titicaca Basin. While there were regional commonalities across survey areas in the masonry design of terrace risers, presence of pathways and radiating walls separating vertical tracts of terraces, and a general absence of irrigation, we found deviations from each of these trends in individual terrace complexes. While preliminary evidence indicates that more terraces were built or cultivated during the Late Intermediate period (1100–1450 CE) than in other time periods in the northern Titicaca basin, some terraces were likely built earlier. Our findings point to the multiplicity of strategies that ancient farmers employed in the varied ecological settings of the Lake Titicaca basin under diverse sociopolitical programs. This contrasts with previous research on agrarian field systems, which is mostly single‐sited and tends to emphasize individual strategies over the quiver of agrarian options available to Andean farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost 30 years ago, Naomi Miller and Katheryn Gleason edited the influential volume, The Archaeology of Garden and Field, a guide to the identification and interpretation of evidence for past agricultural practice inscribed within the landscape. Here we introduce a new collection of papers that advance both theoretical discourses and methodological approaches to the study of ancient field systems. Contemporary archaeological debates bring new urgency to explorations of relict agricultural features, as they offer powerful perspectives on the entanglements of humans with their environment in the Anthropocene, while also serving to decolonize the past through engagement with Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge. Although many ancient fields are at dire risk of destruction or have already been lost to modern land‐use changes, an emerging suite of new technologies and innovative methods are now enabling archaeologists to find and interpret past agricultural systems as never before. Herein, we argue for the critical importance of archaeological investigations that prioritize discovery and interpretation of relict fields and their constitution within larger landscapes, both as a means to better understand people in the past as well as our role as a species in shaping global ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In the world of intelligent agriculture, agricultural disease picture detection plays a critical role. Plant disease identification must be efficient if agricultural production is to be increased sustainably. Anomalies in plants affected by viruses, insects, nutritional deficiencies, or poor weather conditions have traditionally been diagnosed by human experts. Deep learning (DL) and transfer learning, two sophisticated machine learning techniques synonymous with the advancement of artificial intelligence technologies in recent years, have started to be used for the identification of agricultural diseases. However, a variety of significant obstacles exist in the way of widespread use of these approaches. This paper looks at DL and transfer learning in particular, and discusses recent developments in using these advanced technologies to recognize agricultural disease images. Many DL architectures have recently been adopted, along with visualization tools, which are critical for identifying signs and classifying plant diseases. The analysis and evaluation of these two approaches show that transfer learning is the better choice given existing agricultural disease data tools. The paper then looks at the key problems that need to be addressed for research in this area to advance, such as image dataset creation, the collection of big data auxiliary domains, and the optimization of the transfer learning process. The construction of technically feasible agricultural disease image recognition systems requires the creation of image datasets collected under real cultivation conditions. This survey aims to learn more about DL capabilities in plant disease detection to increase device efficiency and accuracy in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major limiting factor affecting the uptake of conservation agriculture practices in smallholder farming systems in sub‐Saharan Africa is the limited availability of sufficient crop residues for use as surface mulch. This paper assesses the trade‐offs in crop residue utilization among smallholder farmers and its implications for soil management in the face of climate change risks in northern Ghana. The paper triangulated data from 350 household surveys with participatory key informant interviews from seven selected communities in three districts of northern Ghana. The problem confrontation index (PCI) was adopted to identify and rank the challenges associated with farmers' decision to use crop residues, while a multivariate probit model was used to analyse and predict the factors that influence farmers' choice of crop residue management practices. Results showed that crop residues were used as cooking fuel in households (21%), livestock feed (21%), left on the farm to decompose as mulch (34%) or burned to clear the land (24%). Key challenges identified included high labour cost (PCI = 404), high labour intensity (PCI = 388), the cost and transport for collection and storage of externally sourced crop residue (PCI = 383) and the low benefit from crop residue to farm output/soil fertility (PCI = 339). Results from the multivariate probit model revealed that household and farm variables, institutional and socio‐psychological factors, and experience of some climate shocks all influence farmers' choice of crop residue management practices. Crop residue use and management practices adopted were determined by factors including the crops being grown, challenges faced by farmers and the management options available. The study recommends the need for the Government of Ghana to empower farmers through the provision of technical knowledge and machinery for the sustainable utilization of crop residues due to the high labour intensity and cost associated with such practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico still has more than 24 million of its inhabitants living in poverty, the bulk of these living in rural areas. Since 1982 Mexico has carried out a model programme of structural adjustment and economic liberalization. From 1988 onwards the previously protective and interventionist farm policy has been liberalized. This paper examines the state of rural poverty and the effect of recent policy changes through detailed studies of four villages in central Mexico carried out between 1996 and 1998. In these cases, households maintained a diverse portfolio of income-earning activities, based on farming, salaried and waged work, temporary migration and small-scale enterprises. Incomes varied little between communities, but were highly unequal within the villages—almost as unequal as income nationally. Most of the inequality arose through the concentration of earnings from larger-scale business and salaried work. On the other hand, any additional income from waged work was likely to reduce inequality. Thanks to uneven distribution of incomes, half the households lived in moderate poverty and one third in extreme poverty. The main determinants of incomes were education, access to capital and migration. The chance of being poor was greater for households that had few sources of income and had no migrants. Cluster analysis revealed three groups differentiated by the pattern of their livelihoods. One third had specialized in salaried work or larger-scale rural business, and were rarely living in poverty; just over one sixth of households specialized in farming, also mainly not poor; and the majority who, while farming small plots, depended heavily on wage labouring for their subsistence and who were usually poor. The main changes affecting the economies of the four villages since 1988 were first and foremost changes in macro and external variables—inflation, stagnation of domestic demand, changes in the world coffee price, and knowledge of international migration. Farm and rural policy change—seen in terms of lower real prices for maize, fewer input subsidies and less state assistance to farming—had been less significant. Most of the changes lowered returns to farming and other rural businesses, pushed down real wages, and raised the cost of living. The retreat of the state and economic liberalization had not led to any countervailing entry of private services or capital. Despite harder times for many households, the response was usually to adapt by tightening belts and looking for extra jobs, rather than abandoning peasant life in the villages. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the context and the systemic experiential theories that have informed the praxis of educating agricultural systems practitioners. The praxis has involved a process of action research with students and with clients in farming and other rural community organizations. The praxis encourages learners to bring a range of methodologies of inquiry to bear upon problematic issues, contingent upon the nature of such issues. Informed by a number of different theories, and by reflecting on our own work, an earlier model of a nested hierarchy of systems of inquiry has been reconstructed to become a more useful guide to educational strategies: Each contingent methodology can now be seen to have its own learning, meta-learning, and epistemic learning dimensions. A key to enriched learning for responsible changes in agriculture and rural development lies in the facilitation of the consciousness of, and competency at, such a systemic pluralism of methodologies. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the mid-1990s, a banana river irrigation farm that was launched in Southwestern Burkina Faso by a returning emigrant refugee spread throughout the region as far as neighboring Ghana. With relative abundant fertile, arable farmland in Ghana, easy access to input and modest capital mobilization by a few Ghanaian University lecturers to clear farmland and construct ridges and lay pipes for irrigation, a new cash crop production was set in motion. This paper analyzes the implication of this innovative rural agricultural intensification in the Ghana side of the border by shifting the angle of analysis away from narratives of transnational African agricultural commercialization driven by foreign corporations to instead focus on the role played by the local elite. The paper demonstrates that the viability of this irrigated farming can be attributed to imported banana crop variety, local rural producers' entrepreneurial zest, and enhanced existing cross- border ties and commercial opportunities made possible by the construction of a strategic regional highway linking the farm sites with large urban and market centers in Burkina Faso. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder farmers in developing nations face multifaceted challenges as they strive to secure fair prices for their agricultural products. With a primary focus on bolstering sustainable agricultural value chains (SAVC), this conceptual paper investigates the transformative potential of Financial Technology (FinTech) solutions. The study synthesizes insights from prior research on SAVC, hurdles faced by smallholder farmers, conventional strategies, and the untapped prospects offered by FinTech solutions in the agricultural sector. Utilizing the PRISMA strategy for comprehensive documentation retrieval, the study underscores the significance of creating a robust SAVC to empower smallholder farmers within the broader value chain landscape. It is found that Agri‐FinTech solutions represent a pivotal avenue for advancing living standards and cultivating agricultural sustainability in developing nations. The integration of FinTech solutions for agri‐credit mechanisms and product market facilitation catalyzes enabling pre‐production financing and ensures fair prices for smallholder farmers in the post‐production phase while neutralizing the value chain's exploitation potential. The study advocates for the expeditious adoption of information technology in developing countries, spotlighting the transformative role of Mobile Financial Services (MFS), which fortifies the agriculture sector, ensuring its resilience and responsiveness to the evolving demands of a globalized market. Drawing upon an evaluation of existing literature on FinTech‐enhanced agricultural initiatives in developing nations, the study outlines directions for future research and creates a path for a more nuanced understanding of the strategic enhancements necessary to fortify the SAVC, fostering a sustainable and equitable ecosystem for smallholder farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sustainable transition in the agri‐food system holds society‐wide implications. Farmers play central roles in responding to climate change, environmental degradation and sustainable food production. Still, factors underlying how farmers make decisions and manage their farms are often marginalised in efforts to develop policies to tackle these issues.The concept of relational values, defined as preferences, principles and virtues based on human–nature relationships, recently emerged to expand understandings of environmental decision‐making in general and that of farmers specifically. As agricultural landscapes are dynamic and characterised by the interaction of various actors with diverse values and interests, how these interactions influence farmers' decisions remains underexplored.This paper engages with these issues by using qualitative data on Norwegian horticultural farmers' motivations, opportunities and challenges in farming. We find that their relational values (a) are influential in shaping farmers' decisions about farm management and (b) are continually unfolding and embedded within a web of other actors, including grocers, retailers, consumers, farm advisors and policymakers, which shapes farmers' enactment of their relational values.In the context of agriculture, this research underlines the utility of an in‐depth understanding of relational values as embedded in wider social systems to enrich analyses of farmer decision‐making. How farmers' relational values are shaped and realised through interactions with other actors holds important implications for policy and programming to navigate tensions between different interests and actors for sustainable and long‐term change. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural markets remain major issue downgrading root and tuber crop farmers who form the mainstream of the agricultural producers in Malawi. Recent evidence however reveals that orange‐fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) (Ipomea batatas) is currently being sold in produce markets along with the non‐orange varieties, sometimes in differentiated form in Malawi. The main objective of this study was to examine factors affecting market participation of sweet potato farmers in southern region of Malawi. Using a double‐hurdle model, this paper analyzed both the factors affecting farmer decision to participate and the extent/intensity of participation in market. The first tier of the double hurdle focused on decision to participate in the market using probit model and the second tier addressed factors affecting intensity of participation using truncated normal regression model. The paper used data collected from 360 farmers in southern districts of Malawi. Out of 360, 146 farmers had grown OFSP in the season preceding the survey. Double hurdle results indicate that farm size, output, age of a farmer (household head), and early maturing trait significantly determined decision to participate in the market. Further, results on intensity of participation indicate that access to market training, farm size, asset value, and output positively determined the intensity and negatively determined by distance to main market and gender of a farmer (household head). Based on the research findings, higher output levels and early maturing trait were found to increase smallholder farmer market participation. It is therefore recommended that strategies aimed at increasing household capacity to produce surplus produce through market tailored extension messages and productivity enhancement technologies could be highly effective in fostering smallholders' participation in commercial markets. Again, enhanced capacity building of research institutions to breed sweet potato varieties based on market demand is pivotal for increased market participation. Furthermore, research suggests that improving smallholder farmers' access to market price information, asset value, and farm size can help increase their intensity in the market. Therefore, it is critical for policymakers to holistically comprehend these socioeconomic factors in order to address the issue of smallholder farm households' decisions about market participation and the degree to which they participate. Core Ideas: Orange fleshed sweet potato is currently being sold along with non‐orange varieties, sometimes in differentiated.Decision to participate in market is significantly influenced by output, farm size, age early maturing attribute.Market intensity is determined by access to training, distance to market, farm size, gender, asset value and output.Breeding programs should integrate both sensory and agronomic traits such as early maturity and good taste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Complete Coverage Path Planning (CCPP) problem is a subfield of industrial motion planning that has applications in various domains, ranging from mobile robotics to treatment applications. Especially in precision agriculture with a high level of automation, the use of CCPP techniques is essential for efficient resource utilization, reduced soil compaction, and increased yields. This paper reviews the CCPP problem in the context of machines operating in agricultural fields and proposes a methodological approach consisting of three steps: Generating the Guidance Tracks (i.e., the track system along which the path should be oriented), determining the traversing sequence through these tracks, and planning a smooth and drivable path. This paper provides an in‐depth review of optimization‐based approaches that deal with the first step, the generation of the guidance track system. Thereby, a comprehensive and pedagogical approach for the generation of guidance tracks for arbitrarily shaped two‐dimensional regions of interest is provided, along with an overview and detailed elaboration on different exact cellular decomposition techniques found in literature. Furthermore, cost functions are outlined for the different approaches presented in this work, which are utilized to generate optimal guidance tracks. Finally, this survey serves as an introductory guide for research and practitioners to solve the CCPP problem effectively and efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: As climate change increases the frequency and severity of droughts in many regions, conservation during drought is becoming a major challenge for ecologists. Droughts are multidimensional climate events whose impacts may be moderated by changes in temperature, water availability or food availability, or some combination of these. Simultaneously, other stressors such as extensive anthropogenic landscape modification may synergize with drought. Useful observational models for guiding conservation decision‐making during drought require multidimensional, dynamic representations to disentangle possible drought impacts, and consequently, they will require large, highly resolved data sets. In this paper, we develop a two‐stage predictive framework for assessing how drought impacts vary with species, habitats and climate pathways. Location: Central Valley, California, USA. Methods: We used a two‐stage counterfactual analysis combining predictive linear mixed models and N‐mixture models to characterize the multidimensional impacts of drought on 66 bird species. We analysed counts from the eBird participatory science data set between 2010 and 2019 and produced species‐ and habitat‐specific estimates of the impact of drought on relative abundance. Results: We found that while fewer than a quarter (16/66) of species experienced abundance declines during drought, nearly half of all species (27/66) changed their habitat associations during drought. Among species that shifted their habitat associations, the use of natural habitats declined during drought while use of developed habitat and perennial agricultural habitat increased. Main Conclusions: Our findings suggest that birds take advantage of agricultural and developed land with artificial irrigation and heat‐buffering microhabitat structure, such as in orchards or parks, to buffer drought impacts. A working lands approach that promotes biodiversity and mitigates stressors across a human‐induced water gradient will be critical for conserving birds during drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Maize grain is deficient in lysine. While the opaque2 mutation increases grain lysine, o2 is a transcription factor that regulates a wide network of genes beyond zeins, which leads to pleiotropic and often negative effects. Additionally, the drastic reduction in 19 kDa and 22 kDa alpha‐zeins causes a floury kernel, unsuitable for agricultural use. Quality protein maize (QPM) overcame the undesirable kernel texture through the introgression of modifying alleles. However, QPM still lacks a functional o2 transcription factor, which has a penalty on non‐lysine amino acids due to the o2 mutation. CRISPR/cas9 gives researchers the ability to directly target genes of interest. In this paper, gene editing was used to specifically target the 19 kDa alpha zein gene family. This allows for proteome rebalancing to occur without an o2 mutation and without a total alpha‐zein knockout. The results showed that editing some, but not all, of the 19 kDa zeins resulted in up to 30% more lysine. An edited line displayed an increase of 30% over the wild type. While not quite the 55% lysine increase displayed by QPM, the line had little collateral impact on other amino acid levels compared to QPM. Additionally, the edited line containing a partially reduced 19 kDa showed an advantage in kernel texture that had a complete 19 kDa knockout. These results serve as proof of concept that editing the 19 kDa alpha‐zein family alone can enhance lysine while retaining vitreous endosperm and a functional O2 transcription factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one on the growth of total factor productivity in African agriculture, using annual data at the country level from 1970 to 2004, another on the issue of efficiency differentials in the presence of possibly heterogeneous goals and preferences among farm household members and another on the European agricultural trade.

This paper explores the effects of a public policy that reduces by 50% the use of mineral nitrogen in European agriculture. Our results show that, for the European Union, halving mineral fertilizer use leads to: a decrease in agricultural production, a substantial increase in nitrogen use efficiency, lower use of organic fertilizer and a loss of agricultural competitiveness. At the global level, it leads to greater nitrogen consumption if no measure is taken on the demand side. Ultimately, our research highlights the critical importance of supply side adjustments, particularly in terms of cropland area expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replicability is a cornerstone of all scientific disciplines. While agricultural economists often provide recommendations to stakeholders that inform, among others policymaking, we currently lack replication papers published in leading agricultural economics journals. This increases the risk that published results are not replicable, which potentially can lead to inefficient resource allocation. In this article, we provide a framework for replications in agricultural economics and discuss challenges and opportunities with the objective to foster a replication culture. We provide pathways on how to untap this potential and provide guidance for enabling a stronger emphasis on replications in the field of agricultural economics. We present the first special issue on replications in agricultural economics, which consists of 11 articles that replicate various empirical analyses presented in published articles and advance the analyses that were used in the original work to provide further insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reflects on the lessons from two case studies in order to discuss (1) how they address Ostrom's eight principles and (2) implications for social, economic and environmental challenges. The two case studies are of forest communities in Venda in South Africa and Ciptagelar, West Java, discussed in terms of their social, environmental and economic approaches. In both cases, the communities see themselves as related to nature; in the case of Venda, they express this as a totemic relationship and have been inspired to apply an ecological calendar that was taught to them during the time Mphatheleni Makaulule spent learning from Amazonian leaders. In the case of Ciptagelar, the nomadic way of life is based on a sense of being stewards who do not commodify rice, a sacred source of life, which is in turn dependent upon all the co‐existent creatures and ultimately the forest, which is their home. In both communities, the environment and people are priorities managed by observing the natural cycle. In both communities, an ecological calendar guides the planning and harvesting of crops. In Tshidzivhe Venda, a rigorous approach to crops, harvesting from the forest and re‐planting the forest, is observed, and the entire community act as caretakers and are required to ask permission before harvesting from the forest. In Ciptagelar, West Java, the chief reads the signs when it is time to move to another area and follows a careful approach to biodiversity ensuring that paddy is grown only for certain months so that other creatures can thrive in other months. The Balancing Individualism and Collectivism Special Integration Group has focused on learning by doing using an applied mixed methods approach. It is based on a community of practice spanning NGOs, community projects and university departments. It is supported by a small NRF fund, some funding from UNISA and in kind support from participants. We work together because of shared values and mutual respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland fragmentation is a typical feature of arable land use in the economies dominated by smallholder production mode, and scientific evaluation of farmland fragmentation is an effective and crucial process to find and solve problems. Farmland fragmentation, as a kind of long‐standing physiographic landscape and agricultural economic phenomenon under the comprehensive effect of "human‐land‐property rights", not only contains the scale status and spatial distribution of cultivated patches but also is featured with farming and tenure right. However, the theoretical interpretation of the multidimensional characteristics of farmland fragmentation was insufficient, and it was rare to evaluate the farmland fragmentation based on plot scale. To this end, an evaluation framework of farmland fragmentation with four dimensions and 12 indicators was constructed in this paper. Moreover, regarding Minqing County located in China's southeast coast as a case, empirical research was thus conducted. The findings indicated that the physical properties of farmland patches were depicted through scale fragmentation. Spatial fragmentation represented the spatial distribution of farmland patches. Farming fragmentation revealed agricultural production and management differences while tenure fragmentation embodied the tenure rights segmentation induced by the land distribution system. Farmland fragmentation consolidation was an effective way to solve these issues, and some differential tactics should be conducted in accordance with the path of "zoning types–obstacle factors–consolidation directions–treatment measures". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Using a novel dataset on foreign direct investment (FDI), this paper analyzes the correlates of planned FDI in the food and beverages sector in 49 African countries over the period 2003–2017. It applies the random effects model and augments the standard specification of FDI determinants with a set of factors related to the agricultural sector performance, hypothesized to be essential from the perspective of supply chain linkages and access to raw materials. The results indicate that well‐performing and well‐capitalized agricultural sector of the host country is a key factor associated with the choice of investment location by foreign investors, especially those from the Global North. Capital investment in agriculture, as proxied by agricultural gross fixed capital formation and net capital stock, is particularly important. Public investment in agriculture, in the form of government expenditure and official development assistance, is also associated with higher FDI. These factors, however, are not significant in case of the least developed countries where only market potential appears to matter for foreign investors. The results suggest that complementarities may exist between different types of investments and that policy‐makers willing to attract food and beverages FDI should prioritize agricultural sector development. [EconLit Citations: E22, E24, F21, F23, Q00, Q13, Q18]. Practitioner points: Planned FDI in the food and beverages sector in Africa are driven by the potential that a domestic emerging consumer class represents and investors choose large and fast‐growing markets.Well‐performing and well‐capitalized agricultural sector of the host country appears to be a key factor associated with the choice of investment location by foreign investors, especially those from the Global North. Capital investment in agriculture, as proxied by agricultural gross fixed capital formation and net capital stock, is particularly important.The results suggest that complementarities may exist between different types of investments and that policy‐makers willing to attract food and beverages FDI should prioritize agricultural sector development.In the least developed countries in Africa, only the market potential, as reflected by both the market size and its dynamics, is associated with higher FDI, while the evidence is missing for the agricultural sector performance indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several research papers on agricultural economics in the United States.

Presents abstracts of several research papers published in the December 1976 issue of the 'American Journal of Agricultural Economics.' 'New Equity: A Look at Texas Agricultural Limited Partnerships and the Investors Who Fund Them'; 'Correspondent Banking in Agricultural Finance: An Analysis of Profit Requirements and Pricing Procedures'; 'Energy Scarcity and Nonpoint Source Pollution in Midwestern Agriculture.'