Focusing on Nicaraguan farmers and their use of agricultural technology and innovation systems, this brief highlights recent lessons emerging from the operational and analytical programme of the World Bank‘s Latin America and Caribbean Region.In response to a number of structural problems in the agricultural sector, the Nicaraguan Government in partnership with the World Bank, launched a long-term investment programme in agricultural technology in 2001 in order to implement policy and institutional reforms. The three pillars on which the reform programme rested were: Institutional capacity development, developing an agricultural technical education and training system, and developing an agricultural technology information system.The article highlights a number of important lessons that were learned in the first two years:reforms must be devised as a whole and approached together, linking institutions that rarely act together - external agents can help break the status quothe elite head and staff of existing institutions, resist change -external individuals/ teams can accelerate the innovation processinstitutional modification and/or capacity building take time, and dedicated effort. This justifies longer-term programmes, but should not be an excuse to neglect technical, social and political needs for achieving quick resultsformal education qualifications often exceed real knowledge and skills -staffing should be based on practical criteria and the capacity to achieve concrete resultsexternal expertise is required to provide inputs and suggestions from countries with successful experiences, and opinions that are less likely to be interpreted as political rather then technicalcontinuous feedback is needed, to changes procedures that prove ineffective or uselessly fatiguingdeveloping a proper communication strategy needs serious attention from the program’s inceptiontechnology generation and transfer in combination are necessary but not sufficient to increase productivity; increasing productivity alone will not guarantee increased net income and well-being. In a competitive, open environment, emphasis must also be given to other important factors, particularly development of infrastructure, marketing and farmer organisations.

From production to retail, information systems have become increasingly important in the agrifood system. Retailers use information systems to improve inventory management and increase efficiency in production and logistics. Innovations in agribiotechnology and food safety issues highlighted by incidences related to Starlink corn and "mad cow disease", have raised consumer concerns about their food products. In addition to food safety concerns, consumers are increasingly willing to pay premiums for nonobservable quality characteristics in their food products. This paper outlines a framework for evaluating the implications of traceability for the organization of the agricultural system and highlights potential organizational responses to traceability issues.

Policies to tax farmers in low-income countries and policies to subsidize them in high-income countries have been identified as a major source of the disequilibrium of world agriculture. Recently, as many high-performing economies in Asia advanced from the low-income to the middle-income stage through successful industrialization, they are confronted with the problem of a widening income gap between farm and non-farm workers corresponding to rapid shifts in comparative advantage from agriculture to manufacturing. In order to prevent this disparity from culminating in serious social and political instability, policies have been reoriented toward supporting the income of farmers. At the same time, governments in middle-income countries must continue to secure low-cost food to the urban poor who are still large in number. The need to achieve the two conflicting goals under the still weak fiscal capacity of governments tends to make agricultural policies in the middle-income stage tinkering and ineffective. Greater research inputs in this area are called for in order to prevent the growth momentum of high-performing economies in Asia from being disrupted by political crises, as illustrated by the bent of Japan toward militarism during the period between the two World Wars.

Loan contract performance determines the profitability and stability of the financial institutions and screening the loan applications is a key process in minimizing credit risk. Before making any credit decisions, credit analysis (the assessment of the financial history and financial backgrounds of the borrowers) should be completed as part of the screening process. A good credit risk assessment assists financial institutions on loan pricing, determining amount of credit, credit risk management, reduction of default risk and increase in debt repayment. The purpose of this study is to estimate a credit scoring model for the agricultural loans in Thailand. The logistic regression and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used to construct the credit scoring models and to predict the borrower’s creditworthiness and default risk. The results of the logistic regression confirm the importance of total asset value, capital turnover ratio (efficiency) and the duration of a bank - borrower relationship as important factors in determining the creditworthiness of the borrowers. The results also show that a higher value of assets implies a higher credit worthiness and a higher probability of a good loan. However, the negative signs found on both capital turnover ratio and the duration of bank borrower relationship, which contradict with the hypothesized signs, suggest that the borrower who has a long relationship with the bank and who has a higher gross income to total assets has a higher probability to default on debt repayment.

This study examined the changes in distribution patterns of 13 herbaceous plant species from 1998 to 2000 in ditch banks along the edges of arable fields in the Netherlands. The objective was to test if spatial dynamics could be related to spatial isolation and disturbance of habitat and to the dispersal and seed bank characteristics of the species. Knowledge of these relations should be used to increase the effectivity of agri-environmental schemes aiming at an increase of botanical diversity. All species frequently colonized empty patches and populations in occupied patches frequently went extinct. Most colonization events occurred within 50 m of conspecific source patches in the preceding year, but colonization events in patches at distances more than 200 m from conspecific source patches were also observed. The colonization probabilities decreased with isolation distance. For nine species this relation was statistically significant, after correction for year and habitat. The extinction probabilities increased with isolation. For only four species this relation was statistically significant. Both colonization and extinction probabilities were more often statistically significant related to isolation for species with transient seed banks than species with persistent seed banks. Implications for management options aiming at survival of plant species in fragmented landscapes are discussed.

International audience | A contaminated soil was collected in a field adjacent to a derelict As (III) smelter in Reppel (Bocholt, Belgium). A single soil treatment (% by soil weight) based on either iron grit (SS, 1%), beringite (B, 5%), or iron grit (1%) + beringite (5%) (BSS) was applied. Untreated and treated Reppel soils and a control soil were placed in lysimeters inside a greenhouse and cropped annually. The efficiency of soil treatments in decreasing As and metals in exposure sources and restoring soil functions was assessed 6 years after the treatments commenced. Decreases in extractable Cd, Mn, Zn and As occurred in the BSS soil. Only BSS treatment reduced both As and metal concentrations in leachates. BSS treatment produced best growth of lettuce and cabbage, the highest shoot and pod yields for dwarf bean, the lowest As, Cd and Zn concentrations in plant tissues, and partly restored Rhizobium nodulation on bean roots. The epigeic earthworm (Dendrobaena octaedra) could only survive in the BSS soil. Depurated living worms from the BSS soil had Cd concentration similar to those in control worms, but higher As, Ca, Fe, and Zn concentrations. Based on physiologically based extraction test (PBET), As bioaccessibility was reduced from 12% (untreated soil) to 7.4% (BSS) and 3% (SS), but only the SS treatment decreased the bioaccessibility of Cd (-30%) and Pb (-35%). The range of chemical and biological indicators suggested that BSS amendment was the most effective treatment for restoration of normal soil functions 6 years after initial treatment of the Reppel soil

By the methodology of LANDEP we have elaborated the Parna catchment model area in the district of Trnava. The paper presents only a part of the methodological procedure - in what manner influence abiotic complexes in the proposal of an ecologically optimum way of utilization. Elaborated types of abiotic complexes sever from the neighboring homogeneous areas by different combination of values, i.e. also by different suitability of utilization. In basic features the homogeneous content of types predestinates their identical reaction on human interferences. For each type has been elaborated a frame scheme of proposals and measures for their optimum utilization. In the model area the suitability of utilization of abiotic complexes by selected agricultural crops is the main practical applicable result of landscape-ecological evaluation of agricultural landscape. This proposal ought to limit the undesirable soil loss. In the future the long-term no observation of landscape-ecological measures can have very negative effects also on economy as well as on the overall worsening of ecological quality of the environment.