The Ghana Grains Partnership

A surge in international food prices that began in 2008 led to a variety of responses from African governments, ranging from price controls, trade restrictions and food security stocks, to facilitating longer-term increase in supply-side increases in production. In Ghana, the objectives emphasized broad-based, pro-poor agricultural growth, expansion of high-value cash crops and improved production of food crops. A hybrid of crop rotation plus addition of external inputs of fertilizers in a modern intensified farming regime was seen as a way forward. The Ghana Grains Partnership (GGP) was underpinned by this assumption, addressing a national shortfall in maize through a coordinated and market-led value chain development approach. The Partnership was initially made up of international and national agribusinesses, an agricultural development fund, farmers and farmer associations and a commercial bank and coordinated by Prorustica. The GGP adopted innovative approaches such as the coordination of commercial and non-commercial objectives. The focus on complete agricultural value chains provided a holistic approach to meet the needs of farmers for agricultural inputs and finance and addressed constraints to more effective commodity output markets. The Partnership's basic principles included the setting up of a farmers' grain association with the partners sharing the costs, benefits and risks.     

Promoting smallholder seed enterprises: quality seed production of rice,maize, sorghum and millet in northern Cameroon

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) conducted two projects in Cameroon on strengthening rice, and sorghum, maize and millet seed production by smallholder seed enterprises (SSEs). Farmer groups (respectively, 25 SSEs and 114 SSEs) were formed or strengthened and trained. Sixty-six selected lead farmers were trained on the administering and managing of revolving funds. The groups were then linked to the Extension Service (for continuous technical advice), Agriculture Research for Development Institution (continuous supply of needed seed), National Seed Service (seed certification) and to financial institutions (financial support). The results obtained showed that 60 and 59.6 per cent, respectively, of the groups sustained their activities two to three years after the projects ended. Total certified rice seed produced increased to 800 tonnes (t) against 267t at the beginning. For the other cereal project, the total certified seed produced was 719.2t against 497t at its beginning. The use of quality seed rice together with good agronomic practices increased yields (up to 8.0t/ha against a scant 2t/ha before). All interviewed farmers stressed that the seed business was profitable and helped achieve higher living standards and diversify their activities. Seasonal incomes were more than US$1,783.31. Finally, both FAO projects helped generate farmers' income to about US$2,114.871, produced 447,954t of cereal grain and thus improved food security and alleviated poverty. The Cameroonian success could be repeated elsewhere.     

黄淮海平原地区交通优势度的空间格局

针对区域特点修正后的交通优势度评价模型,借助GIS的空间分析、统计功能,以黄淮海平原地区311个评价单元为例,研究了该区域路网密度、交通设施邻近度、区位优势度和交通优势度空间布局。研究发现:黄淮海平原地区交通优势度总体呈偏正态分布,大部分地区交通优势度一般或偏低,优势度较高的地区有京津及其周边地区,以及以京津为核心辐射出的三条交通优势带。     

煤化工:淮北市产业升级的必由之路

淮北是一个煤炭资源型城市,煤炭资源总量丰富,煤种齐全,发展煤化工是促进淮北市经济结构战略性转变,推动产业升级和城市转型的必由之路.淮北发展煤化工业,应把能源转化型和原料替代型的新型煤化工业作为市场发展方向,选择"从焦到化"和"从煤到化"两条产品发展路线.最后,就淮北发展煤化工需要重点关注的几个问题如淮水北调、资金筹措、煤化工技术、循环经济进行了深入探讨.     

Evolution in games with a continuous action space

Allowing for games with a continuous action space, we investigate how evolutionary stability, the existence of a uniform invasion barrier, local superiority and asymptotic stability relate to each other. This is done without restricting the populations of which we want to investigate the stability to monomorphic population states or to strategies with finite support. The authors have benefitted from careful and precise comments by Gerard van der Laan, Jan van Mill, the editor and an anonymous referee. Matthijs van Veelen gratefully acknowledges financial support by the Netherlands’ Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).     

Evaluating the effectiveness of inter-regional trade and storage in Malawi’s private sector maize markets

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the private sector maize marketing system in Malawi using threshold autoregression models. Two dimensions of maize market performance are evaluated: (1) inter-regional trade and spatial price transmission; and (2) storage and seasonal price relationships. In both cases, threshold autoregression models which account for nonlinearities predicted by economic theory are applied. Results indicate that spatial price transmission and seasonal price patterns in private sector maize markets in Malawi are generally consistent with long-run competitive inter-regional trade and storage behavior, and that in most cases shocks to long-run equilibrium are arbitraged away quickly. This suggests the private sector in Malawi is generally doing a good job of transporting maize from surplus to deficit regions and smoothing maize consumption between harvests.     

依托广州大学城的资源优势，深入开展大学生文化素质教育

兴办大学城,是我国高等教育向大众化阶段发展过程中为解决资源短缺、追求资源共享、提高办学质量的一种创新性的办学方式。广州大学城在全国具有一定代表性,我们要依托广州大学城的资源优势,深入开展大学生文化素质教育,全面提高学生综合素质。     

刍议事项会计三性

事项会计是一种基于网络环境、集成化、多样化、控制实时化、功能组件化、过程动态化以及开放的信息系统。它将是新一代会计信息系统体系结构的发展模式。事项会计相对于传统会计来说,它是一个新生事物,还没有引起会计界的足够重视。     

以竞争优势理论为指导 迎接经济全球化挑战

经济全球化是当今世界经济发展的新阶段。它是一把“双刃剑”，既强有力地推动着世界经济的发展。同时对主权国家的经济安全带来威胁，发展中国家要想在经济全球化中立于不败之地，就必须以竞争优势理论为指导。勇敢地迎接经济全球化挑战。     

论优势与谋略——兼谈秀洲区创建文化优势20年

以嘉兴市秀洲区创建文化优势为例,引经据典,既有历史的经验教训,又有现实的事例,说明了创造优势对于一个区域或单位的重要性。