Building knowledge systems for sustainable agriculture: supporting private advisors to adequately address sustainable farm management in regular service contacts

Advisory service provisioning on sustainability issues such as environmental care and food safety is considered suboptimal in privatized extension systems, which comprise a diverse set of private advisors. Apart from funding dedicated ‘public good’ projects, government also relies on these advisors to address sustainability issues in their regular service contacts with farmers. Policy measures have hence been proposed to stimulate farmer demand for such sustainable farm management (SFM) advice (pull measures) and to build capacity among advisors (push measures). This paper assesses two interventions, in nutrient management and mastitis prevention, that integrate pull measures (awareness building and economic incentives) and push measures (promoting facilitative advisory styles and optimizing knowledge system linkages) to stimulate advisory service provisioning on SFM. Results indicate that effectiveness appears to depend on an adequate mix of, and balance between, push and pull measures. Awareness building is a prerequisite to creating demand for such services and appears more important than economic incentives. However, awareness is not built by the interventions alone; indeed, a lack of awareness may not be the main problem: the broader institutional context may not be conducive to a proactive approach to addressing SFM if regulatory frameworks are unclear and inconsistent. The main conclusion is that, despite interventions having an impact, it is uncertain whether the demand for, and supply of, SFM advice will be sustained after interventions are withdrawn.     

Soil Fertility Management and Compost Use in Senegal's Peanut Basin

The Jóór (Dior) soils of Senegal's Peanut Basin are inherently low in organic matter, limiting yields of millet and other crops and threatening the food security of smallholders. Focus groups and interviews were conducted in eight villages to characterise the site-specific fertility management by farmers in the Peanut Basin. Results of the qualitative survey revealed that farmers base management decisions on a series of fertility indicators that include type, colour, and texture of soil, presence of vegetation, and productivity in previous years. In an effort to equalise fertility across the field, farmers amend areas they classify as less fertile with decomposed manure and household waste from the family sëntaare (traditional pile) orwith compost from managed piles. On-site measurements of soil in areas of fields amended with compost or sëntaare material revealed significant increases in peanut and millet growth over unamended areas, but little difference between the effects of compost and manure. Similarly, chemical analysis revealed increased effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) and nutrient concentrations (K, Mg and Al) in soils amended with compost or manure. Similarities in the chemical characteristics of compost and sëntaare material suggest that development workers could emphasise improved pile management rather than promoting more labour-intensive composting.     

Developing sustainable tourism through adaptive resource management: a case study of Machu Picchu,Peru

Machu Picchu, Peru, is recognized as a top international travel destination. Pressure from the approximately 900,000 tourists who annually visit the ancient Inca city threatens the ecological integrity, physical substance and cultural authenticity of the World Heritage Site and surrounding area, including the Inca Trail. Multiple organizations and agencies currently involved in the management of Machu Picchu have distinct agendas for the conservation and development of the city, and conflicts regarding public access, economic growth and cultural preservation are rampant. Attempts to establish carrying capacities have failed, with proposed daily visitor levels ranging from 800 to 4000. This paper explores the complex issues surrounding tourism at Machu Picchu and presents a potential solution: an adaptive management approach based on the UN World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) sustainable tourism framework. This integrative strategy accounts for multiple perspectives and synthesizes disparate goals embraced by diverse stakeholders, including the Peruvian government, international conservation organizations, foreign tourists, private tour operators, regional authorities and indigenous communities. The focus on Machu Picchu as an adaptive management case study site outlines key steps leading to implementation, offering planning and policy implications for sustainability initiatives at numerous developing-world tourism destinations facing similar political and socio-economic challenges.     

基于政府利益要求及其实现方式的非财务指标关注程度实证研究

从政府角度出发,对政府所关注的反映其利益要求和实现方式信息的非财务指标进行了排序研究和分组研究。研究得出结论:政府对不同类的反映其利益要求和实现方式信息的非财务指标的关注程度存在显著的差异;越是反映政府排列在前的利益要求和实现方式信息的非财务指标越受政府关注。企业对政府相关信息的充分沟通更易取得政府对企业的理解和支持。企业除应按相关法律法规的规定进行规定信息的披露外,还应当根据本企业利益相关者政府对非财务指标关注的需要以及关注程度的差异对政府所关注的非财务指标信息对政府进行充分信息沟通,以满足政府关注相关信息的需要。     

A green economy indicator framework for tourism destinations

This paper presents a green economy indicator framework for tourism destinations which has been developed in the case study destination of Bali, Indonesia. Whilst the term “green economy” can have many interpretations, here it refers to the global strategy framework surrounding Rio+20, as well as the policies and strategies being developed by tourism destinations as a response. Many uncertainties remain about the effectiveness of these efforts and how they may be measured. For lesser developed countries in particular, reliable data is often difficult to obtain and this study uses a case study approach to identify the relevant, and measurable, indicators in this context. First, a nominal group technique was applied to identify the green economy issues for local tourism stakeholders. The indicators were then selected based on the green economy literature and a review of the available secondary data for the destination. Data on greenhouse gas emissions from tourism was identified as one of the critical gaps and an estimate is provided to show how this could be obtained and monitored. While this indicator framework was developed specifically for Bali, the case study may be relevant for many other island destinations in the lesser developed world that are experiencing rapid tourism growth.     

可持续发展评价指标体系研究现状与展望

比较了国内外有较大影响的可持续发展评价指标体系的研究方法、基本框架和指标的构成,分析了各指标体系存在的主要问题,在此基础上从指标设置、评价目的、信息统计、体系建设和评价形态5个方面探讨了可持续发展评价指标体系的研究方向。     

几种工业乙酸乙酯制备方法的技术经济对比

乙酸乙酯是应用最广泛的脂肪酸酯之一，其制备方法有乙酸酯化法，乙醛缩合法，乙烯加成法和乙醇脱氢法等，相对比，乙醛缩合法生产乙酸乙酯路线投资低，成本也较低，较适合乙醛富裕地区投资生产。     

Economic consequences of intifada

In 2003 the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published estimates of macro-economic indicators for 2002 of the economy of Palestine. The WB used a micro-founded recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, calibrated on the 1998 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Palestine, to which shocks were applied, whereas the IMF based its estimates on a macro-founded income-expenditure model relying on more recent data. It turned out that there were substantial differences: the estimate by the WB of the real gross national income (at 1998 prices) was 25% less than the corresponding figure calculated by the IMF. This huge difference is not only relevant for a full understanding of the economic consequences of the intifada, but also for the size of the international community intervention. In this paper we propose our own evaluation with the help of a static CGE model, based on the 1998 SAM and the so-called intifada shock derived from data of the WB that we constructed for the analysis of some forms of emergency assistance in a previous article. It turns out that our estimates, based on an entirely different methodology, are remarkably close to those of the IMF.     

A useful tool for forecasting the Euro-area business cycle phases

Based on a novel extension of existing multivariate Markov-switching models, we provide the reader with a useful tool for analyzing current business conditions and making predictions about the future state of the Euro-area economy in real time. Apart from the Industrial Production Index, we find that the European Commission Industrial Confidence Indicator, which is issued with no delay, is very useful for constructing the real-time predictions.     

Sense and sustainability revisited: the limits of total factor productivity measures of sustainable agricultural systems

Many economists have advocated and applied total social factor productivity (TSFP) (i.e., total factor productivity estimated with both market and non‐market inputs and externalities, and with all factors valued at social prices) as a single all‐embracing measure of agricultural sustainability. This paper reviews the conceptual and practical issues in measuring TSFP and shows that no one measure alone will be theoretically or empirically robust as an indicator of sustainability. TSFP is a conceptually flawed measure since inclusion of non‐market inputs and outputs and social price‐based valuation, in most cases, violates the theoretical basis underlying those estimates. Trends in TSFP also have limited value in diagnosing the nature of sustainability problems, unless changes in productivity are related to underlying changes in technology, human and physical infrastructure, and indicators of resource quality. More attention needs to be given to defining key indicators of agro‐ecosystem health and relating these measures to trends in productivity. This analysis must be sufficiently disaggregated and for a long enough time period to allow for spatial and temporal variability inherent in agricultural production. Secondary data at the district level on both conventional inputs and outputs and resource quality have recently allowed more quantitative estimates of sustainability and its causes. With limited data, yield growth decomposition analysis can often be used to provide valuable insights into sustainability problems. Meanwhile, there is a need to invest in long‐term experimental and panel surveys of farmers and their fields for key production systems in order to provide long‐term data that will allow full productivity accounting, using more formal statistical procedures. Regardless of the approach selected, the findings of this paper strongly suggest a need for economists, agronomists and soil scientists to collaborate in integrating approaches in order to provide more robust and informative measures of sustainability.