For a developing country like Bangladesh, ensuring food security through increased agricultural production is one of the important development goals. Providing agricultural credit to poor farmers (small, marginal and landless farmers) from formal credit sources can facilitate the timely and sufficient supply of agricultural inputs in order to promote the food production and improve the livelihoods of poor farmers. This study aims to investigate the impact of agricultural credit on agricultural productivity in Bangladesh. The empirical analysis employed annual time-series data that have been collected from Bangladesh Bank (BB), Ministry of Finance (MoF), and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) for the period of 2000 to 2019. This paper examined the short run and long run relationships between agricultural credit and agricultural productivity along with other control variables applying the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test approach. The findings of the study revealed that the short run and the long run relationships exist between the agricultural credit and agricultural productivity while the productivity of the agricultural sector also influenced by other dynamic variables like inflation, interest rate, and government expenditure on agriculture. This paper concludes that agricultural credit growth should increase to boost up the agricultural production, which would definitely be helpful in fostering economic growth in Bangladesh.

Analyses (n = 525) of chloride (Cl⁻), bromide (Br⁻), nitrate as nitrogen (NO₃‐N), sodium (Na⁺), calcium (Ca²⁺) and potassium (K⁺) in stream water, tile‐drain water and groundwater were conducted in an urban‐agricultural watershed (10% urban/impervious, 87% agriculture) to explore potential differences in the signature of Cl⁻ originating from an urban source as compared with an agricultural source. Only during winter recharge events did measured Cl⁻ concentrations exceed the 230 mg/L chronic threshold. At base flow, nearly all surface water and tile water samples had Cl⁻ concentrations above the calculated background threshold of 18 mg/L. Mann–Whitney U tests revealed ratios of Cl⁻ to Br⁻ (p = .045), to NO₃‐N (p < .0001), to Ca²⁺ (p < .0001), and to Na⁺ (p < .0001) to be significantly different between urban and agricultural waters. While Cl⁻ ratios indicate that road salt was the dominant source of Cl⁻ in the watershed, potassium chloride fertilizer contributed as an important secondary source. Deicing in watersheds where urban land use is minimal had a profound impact on Cl⁻ dynamics; however, agricultural practices contributed Cl⁻ year‐round, elevating stream base flow Cl⁻ concentrations above the background level.

Credit risk models are developed and used to estimate capital requirements for agricultural lenders under the New Basel Capital Accord. The theoretical models combine Merton’s distance-to-default approach with credit value-at-risk methodologies. Two applied models, CreditMetrics and KMV, are illustrated using farm financial data. Expected and unexpected losses for a portfolio of farms are calculated using probability of default, loss given default, and portfolio risk measures. The results show that credit quality and correlations among farms play a significant role in risk pricing for agricultural lenders.

Stream losses are extensively observed due to human activities in the world, and the patterns of stream loss vary in different land use types. However, relationship between stream loss pattern and land use covers is poorly understood. We select the lower Taihu watershed (LTWS) within Yangtze River Delta (YRD), which is dominated by agricultural and urban covers and a typical case of most urbanized watersheds in China. In this study, we measured the stream loss of LTWS from 1960s to 2010s and investigated its relation to different land use covers and impervious area percentage (IAP) in order to figure out the main factor of stream loss in this area. The results show that urban area has tripled with fractional contribution from 10.3% to 33.18% in the form of conversion from agriculture to urban area during 1990–2015. 12.5% of all the streams are lost and 1st-order streams contribute most (91.8%) to the total stream loss. Urban cover contribute most (76%) to total streams loss compared to other land use types. We find that 1st-order streams have highest stream loss intensity, which is mainly caused by urban expansion, but preferred protections are given to highest-order streams. The linear model of correlation of pixel-level streams loss and IAP shows that the streams loss is statistically significant positive with IAP of cells (R² = 0.91). Tradeoffs between city expansion and river network make small channels sacrifice for the urbanization. Urgent measures including legislation must be taken to protect small streams during urbanization nowadays and in future.

A comprehensive agricultural inventory of ammonia emissions for 2017 in Hefei was established on the basis of the specific emission factors and county-level activity data. The emissions over a 1 km × 1 km grid and the associated monthly variations were distributed on the basis of land-use type and meteorological conditions, respectively. The total ammonia emissions were 27,242.7 t in 2017 in Hefei, to which livestock was the top contributor, accounting for 54.5%. Two major contributors to livestock waste were broilers and laying hens, which contributed 34.5% and 22.2% of the total emissions, respectively. Changfeng, Feixi, and Feidong counties, with more developed agriculture than other counties, accounted for a large proportion of the total ammonia emissions—as much as 28.5%, 24.5%, and 21.0%, respectively. The average emissions density of the whole region was 2.4 t km−2, and the higher values were mostly in areas with denser populations. Seasonally, peak ammonia emissions occurred in summer.

Technical approaches to food production are important to the food security of growing populations in developing countries. However, strategic investments in research and farm-level adoption require greater coherence in agricultural, societal, and local policies. The Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) and formation of the Cassava Innovation Platform (CIP) in Uganda were designed to stimulate interactions between researchers and farmers, leading to the development of improved cassava varieties through participatory plant breeding (PPB) and participatory variety selection (PVS). Moreover, the establishment of a community-based commercialized seed system called Cassava Seed Entrepreneurship (CSE) has made an important contribution to the rapid multiplication and dissemination of clean planting materials in Uganda. The impact of CIP participation on rural household welfare was measured by household consumption expenditure per capita. The Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model was applied to data from a formal household survey conducted in the eastern, northern, and mid-western regions of Uganda. The education, farm size, livestock size, access to credit, cost of cassava planting materials, access to extension service, access to training, and social group membership are significantly associated with CIP participation. CIP participation resulted in a 47.4% increase in household consumption expenditure. This important evidence highlights the need to promote agricultural innovation platform for improving rural livelihoods. Moreover, CIP participation has impact heterogeneity within the participant group that is conditional on household characteristics such as the gender of the household head, pointing to the need to tailor specific interventions and target specific groups within farm households.

Technical approaches to food production are important to the food security of growing populations in developing countries. However, strategic investments in research and farm‐level adoption require greater coherence in agricultural, societal, and local policies. The Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) and formation of the Cassava Innovation Platform (CIP) in Uganda were designed to stimulate interactions between researchers and farmers, leading to the development of improved cassava varieties through participatory plant breeding (PPB) and participatory variety selection (PVS). Moreover, the establishment of a community‐based commercialized seed system called Cassava Seed Entrepreneurship (CSE) has made an important contribution to the rapid multiplication and dissemination of clean planting materials in Uganda. The impact of CIP participation on rural household welfare was measured by household consumption expenditure per capita. The Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model was applied to data from a formal household survey conducted in the eastern, northern, and mid‐western regions of Uganda. The education, farm size, livestock size, access to credit, cost of cassava planting materials, access to extension service, access to training, and social group membership are significantly associated with CIP participation. CIP participation resulted in a 47.4% increase in household consumption expenditure. This important evidence highlights the need to promote agricultural innovation platform for improving rural livelihoods. Moreover, CIP participation has impact heterogeneity within the participant group that is conditional on household characteristics such as the gender of the household head, pointing to the need to tailor specific interventions and target specific groups within farm households.