This study assessed the determinants of intensity of improved rice varieties adoption using the Tobit model and also employed. The Heckman Two-stage model was used to identify the determinants of market participation and its potential impact on farming households’ welfare in three states selected from the three notable rice producing ecologies in Nigeria. A crosssectional data of 600 rice farme...

Cropland abandonment has emerged as a prevalent phenomenon in the mountainous areas of China. While there is a general understanding that this new trend is driven by the rising opportunity cost of rural labor, rigorous theoretical and empirical analyses are largely absent. This paper first develops a theoretical model to investigate household decisions on farming scale when off-farm labor marke...

Weed control is one of the most important crop protection activities undertaken in both intensive and low-input farming systems. However, even under intensive systems, crop protection which is less dependent on pesticides may require that weeds be managed to obtain a balance between crop and non-crop vegetation to encourage an increase in natural enemies of crop pests. In the low-input farming ...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine exposure to whole-body vibration (WBV) and mechanical shock in rural workers who use quad bikes and to explore how personal, physical, and workplace characteristics influence exposure. METHODS A seat pad mounted triaxial accelerometer and data logger recorded full workday vibration and shock data from 130 New Zealand rural workers. Persona...

This paper describes a new knowledge acquisition method using a generic design environment where context-sensitive knowledge is used to build specific DSS for rural business. Although standard knowledge acquisition methods have been applied in rural business applications, uptake remains low and familiar weaknesses such as obsolescence and brittleness apply. We describe a decision support system...

CHD mortality is extremely low in Japan, particularly in rural districts, when compared with that in Western countries. This has been partly attributed to the difference in dietary lifestyle. We investigated the factors influencing CHD mortality in a rural coastal district of Japan, comprising mercantile, farming, and fishing areas with distinct dietary habits. We prospectively examined the inc...

Although assistance to farming remains the dominant method for supporting the rural sector in the UK, there has been a shift in policy towards agri-environmental schemes which attempt to reconcile competing demands on the countryside as a simultaneous provider of food, rural livelihoods and environmental goods and services. Many of these issues and challenges facing UK and European agriculture ...

As the buffer between farming and residential areas shrinks, pesticide related conflicts increase. Dan Levi and Kathryn Sperry discuss their study examining environmental attitudes and health impacts of living at the agricultural / urban interface in Oceano, California. The discussion illustrates the importance of including these potential environmental impacts and their mitigation in the plann...

Shrimp farming has great potential to diversify and secure income in rural Sri Lanka, but production has significantly declined in recent years due to civil conflicts, some unsustainable practices and devastating outbreaks of disease. We examined management practices affecting disease prevention and control in the Puttalam district to identify extension services outputs that could support susta...

Many rural Australian communities continue to endure a prolonged drought. The mental health effects of short-term natural disaster are well known; those of a long-term and chronic natural disaster such as drought are less well understood. However, in addition to immediate distress there are likely to be feelings of loss, grief and hopelessness, all of which are implicated in an increased risk o...