Symbiotic associations can allow an organism to acquire novel traits by accessing the genetic repertoire of its partner. In the Dictyostelium discoideum farming symbiosis, certain amoebas (termed "farmers") stably associate with bacterial partners. Farmers can suffer a reproductive cost but also gain beneficial capabilities, such as carriage of bacterial food (proto-farming) and defense against...

Background: The study examined the impact of a contract farming scheme on the farmers’ income, food security, and nutrition. Methods: Simple random sampling was used to select 100 respondents for the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics as well the Propensity Score Matching technique. Results: The major determinants of participation in contract farming included...

Drawing on interviews in Switzerland and New Zealand, we explore the concept of autonomy as part of a farming self. The farming self encompasses the dialectical relationship of autonomy as both value and tool that help us understand farmers within a wider set of economic, environmental and interpersonal relations. Farmers describe autonomy as a value in three related but slightly different ways...

In order to solve the problem that the performance of web application can't meet users' expectation when many users access dynamic data through the application, a data farming optimizing technique for web application is proposed. In the proposed technique, the web application is based on XML and the data are converted into XML format before being presented through XSL. To reduce page response t...

The benefits of organic farming to biodiversity in agricultural landscapes continue to be hotly debated, emphasizing the importance of precisely quantifying the effect of organic vs. conventional farming. We conducted an updated hierarchical meta-analysis of studies that compared biodiversity under organic and conventional farming methods, measured as species richness. We calculated effect size...

Organic farming practices have been promoted as, inter alia, reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture. This meta-analysis systematically analyses published studies that compare environmental impacts of organic and conventional farming in Europe. The results show that organic farming practices generally have positive impacts on the environment per unit of area, but not necessarily per p...

Seung Yong Han Introduction The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of out-migration at the household level on the decision to transition from farming to non-farming in the context of the socioeconomically changing agricultural region, Chitwan, Nepal, over 10 years between 1996 and 2006. In the face of social and economic changes in a region where agriculture is the main business, out...

Soil microorganisms play a crucial role in the biogeochemical cycling of nutrient elements and maintaining soil health. We aimed to investigate the response of bacteria communities to organic farming over different crops (rice, tea and vegetable) along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River of China. Compared with conventional farming, organic farming significantly increased soil nut...

Both organic and conventional farming processes require energy input in the form of diesel fuel for farming equipment, animal feed, and fertilizer compounds. The most significant difference between the two methods is the use in conventional farming of mineral fertilizers and pesticides that are minimally employed in organic management. It is argued that organic farming is more environmentally f...

The impact of climate change has become a major concern within the agricultural profession. While many studies on Climate Change Impact Assessment (CCIA) deal with crop farming, little has been done with regard to livestock farming. This paper aims to shed light on the present state of research in the field of dairy farming, one of the major sectors in agriculture, in a three-fold manner. First...