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Aufsatz
Strategies towards evaluation beyond scientific impact
(Librello, 2015)
Various research fields, like organic agricultural research, are dedicated to solving real-world problems and contributing to sustainable development. Therefore, systems research and the application of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly endorsed. However, research performance depends not only on self-conception, but also on framework conditions of the scientific system, which are not always of benefit to such research fields. Recently, science and its framework conditions have been ...
Aufsatz
Biofuels and livelihoods: Empirical findings on the welfare impacts of Jatropha cultivation in the Mangochi district, Southern Malawi
(2019-11-27)
This study evaluates the welfare impacts of jatropha (Jatropha carcus) cultivation measured as consumption expenditure per adult-equivalent for smallholders in southern Malawi. Household survey data from the southern region of Malawi collected in 2014 from 303 smallholders using purposive and random selection strategies were used. Propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression methods were employed to address the selection bias problem and to control for observed and unobserved covariate effects. The ...
Aufsatz
Heavy Metals and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Urban Leaf Litter Designated for Combustion
(2017-03-03)
Vast amounts of leaf litter have to be disposed of by city administrations. This biomass has the potential for energy conversion, but contamination with pollutants can adversely affect this usage. We investigated leaf litter samples from the city of Kassel by analyzing their heavy metal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations. Leaf samples were indeed contaminated with heavy metals and PAHs and contamination was influenced by provenience and collection technique. A simple cleaning system of washing ...
Aufsatz
High-Quality Solid Fuel Production from Leaf Litter of Urban Street Trees
(2016-11-30)
Leaf litter is a growing concern for cities. Due to adherent dirt such biomass is rarely utilized nowadays but may constitute a renewable energy source for communities or private households. Leaf litter from main roads, residential areas and city centres collected by the vacuum technique or the sweeper technique was sampled and analysed for ash content and chemical composition. Ash content of leaf litter collected by the sweeping technique was higher (21.6%–40.1% dry matter, DM) than in material collected by the ...
Aufsatz
The impact of uncertainty on smallholder farmers' income in Kyrgyzstan
(2019-12-12)
The farming systems in the mountain areas of Kyrgyzstan are primarily characterised by small-scale crop and livestock activities. Farmers are faced with several environmental, socio-economic and political challenges and constraints that result in significant uncertainties affecting their operations. This paper attempts to model how various sources of uncertainty collectively affected the smallholders’ farm incomes during a mid-term horizon using Monte Carlo simulation. The analyses were based on data collected through ...
Aufsatz
Fusion of Ultrasonic and Spectral Sensor Data for Improving the Estimation of Biomass in Grasslands with Heterogeneous Sward Structure
(2017-01-21)
An accurate estimation of biomass is needed to understand the spatio-temporal changes of forage resources in pasture ecosystems and to support grazing management decisions. A timely evaluation of biomass is challenging, as it requires efficient means such as technical sensing methods to assess numerous data and create continuous maps. In order to calibrate ultrasonic and spectral sensors, a field experiment with heterogeneous pastures continuously stocked by cows at three grazing intensities was conducted. Sensor ...
Aufsatz
Liming effects on reproductive growth and yield components of maize grown on an acid rainforest soil
(2019-12-03)
Maize was planted on limed and unlimed plots to study the effect of soil acidity on reproductive growth and yield components of the crop in Owerri southeastern Nigeria. Eight (8) maize varieties (Factor A) and two lime levels (0 and 2 t ha-1, Factor B) were arranged as a factorial experiment in a randomised complete block design with three replications. The number of days to 50 % anthesis and silking, anthesis-silking interval (ASI), physiological maturity and grain filling duration were measured to determine the ...
Aufsatz
Financial Access and Food Productivity Nexus: Evidence from Pakistan
(Section Specialized Partnerships in Sustainable Food Systems and Food Sovereignty at the University of Kassel, Germany and Federation of German Scientists (VDW), 2018-12-26)
Food possesses a great importance in the lives of human beings as it provides energy and strength to the human body to think, grow and develop. The global population is increasing day by day, becoming even more difficult to manage food for every human being on earth. It is the responsibility of every state to provide food for its citizens. “Zero Hunger” is one of the major goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs’) which aims to eradicate hunger from world. Several causes of food insecurity are identified by ...
Aufsatz
Determinants of participation in rural non-farm economy in Zvimba District, Zimbabwe
(2019-11-06)
The capacity of agriculture to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities is exceeded by the rural populations of developing countries, and with limited opportunities available in urban centres, the rural non-farm economy (RNFE) becomes pivotal in improving rural livelihoods. Within an empowerment agenda, it is important for policy makers to understand why households enter into the RNFE. We investigated participation in the RNFE of farm worker livelihoods along with the motivation for participation in RNF employment. ...
Aufsatz
The ‘forma specialis’ issue in Fusarium: A case study in Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi
(2018-01-19)
The Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC) has been studied intensively but its association with legumes, particularly under European agro-climatic conditions, is still poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated phylogenetic relationships and aggressiveness of 79 isolates of the FSSC collected from pea, subterranean clover, white clover and winter vetch grown under diverse agro-climatic and soil conditions within Temperate and Mediterranean Europe. The isolates were characterized by sequencing tef1 and ...