Diversity in the characteristics of agricultural locations has the potential to develop. Unfortunately, the weak transfer of technology based on the characteristics of the location indicates that this potential cannot grow properly. This research aims to synthesise a technology transfer model for an agricultural technology park (ATP) by considering site-specific conditions. This cross-case study was conducted at selected ATP locations. Model synthesis uses the system development life cycle stages of initiation, analysis, and design. The resource-based view approach was broken down into several variables during the analysis stage. Three location-specific technology transfer models were successfully developed: a technology transfer model based on highland specificity, a unique technology transfer model for urban farming, and a tourism village-based model.

EN: The problem of increasing the reliability of a hydraulic drive has been the subject of research by many authors. It has been found that the level of reliability of a hydraulic drive is determined by the concentration of mechanical impurities in the working fluid. Scientific and practical recommendations have been developed to ensure the industrial cleanliness of the hydraulic drive, the use of which provides a significant effect. Similarly, researchers, based on the provisions of the theory of friction and wear developed by scientists (I.V. Kragelsky, V.S. Kambatov, U.A. Ikramov, etc.), have made attempts to build analytical methods for determining the wear of hydraulic units. However, the assumptions made in this regard make these methods ineffective. Main research materials. Nowadays, the direction of increasing the reliability of the hydraulic drive by improving the cleanliness control of components, units and systems of machines for various purposes has been developed, which is used in the operation of mobile machines and has high efficiency.

O processo de gerenciamento da qualidade provê orientação de como a equipe gerenciará e verificará a qualidade do projeto durante a sua execução. Este estudo de caso descritivo explanatório quali-quantitativo objetivou analisar a gestão da qualidade de projetos de Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento e Inovação desenvolvidos por uma unidade de empresa pública de pesquisa agropecuária na Amazônia, no estado do Amapá, além de verificar como as características específicas regionais influenciam na execução dos projetos e identificar pontos de melhoria. Utilizou-se dados do sistema corporativo de gerenciamento de projetos para a verificação da execução dos projetos e seus principais entraves, da Unidade referência, Amapá, e de outras três Unidades de pesquisa da mesma empresa, localizadas na Região Norte, Centro-Oeste e no Sul, do período de 2018 a 2020. Em seguida, foram utilizados o Diagrama de Causa e Efeito e o Gráfico de Pareto para organização e priorização dos problemas a serem analisados. E posteriormente, a técnica5W2H para elaboração do plano de ação. Verificou-se que o gerenciamento de projetos é padronizado, e que o acompanhamento das atividades é quadrimestral. Conclui-se que a maioria dos problemas que causam atraso nas atividades de projetos, na Unidade referência, estão relacionados à falta de materiais, insumos e equipamentos no período programado, que se dá, principalmente, por atrasos no repasse de recursos financeiros e pela dificuldade de aquisição desses itens. Desse modo, no plano de ação sugeriu-se a diversificação de fontes financiadoras, adequação do cronograma físico-financeiro e a capacitação das equipes em gerenciamento de risco e gerenciamento de aquisições.

In the field of agriculture, autonomous systems have developed rapidly in recent years. Gaining an understanding of the surrounding environment is an important element for autonomous systems to operate safely. This thesis aims to address this need by creating an egocentric dataset with depth and gaze data. The dataset contains over three hours of agricultural tasks performed by both experts and non-experts, including picking, cutting, and planting. An object affordance model was trained on this dataset to predict interactable areas within a given image. These areas were categorized into three different classes: pickable, cuttable, and plantable. The code used in this project can be found on: https://github.com/SigurdKvaal97/ Classification-and-Analysis-of-Movable-Objects-in-an-Agricultural-Environment/ tree/master Gaze and depth data were introduced to the model to analyze their effects on performance. This was done by creating four different implementations of the model: the baseline model without depth or gaze, the model with the addition of gaze points, the model with the addition of depth data, and the model with the addition of gaze over time. These implementations were then compared using the Kullback-Leibler Divergence (KLD), the Similarity Metric (SIM), and the Area Under the Curve - Jackknife (AUC-J) scores to assess model performance. Introducing gaze did not result in any improvements, while the inclusion of depth data managed to achieve an improvement in model performance.

In this paper, we address the confidence of the agricultural producers in their prosperity as a driver of development. The agricultural sector development is highly dependent on short term investment decisions for sowing area, breeding, among others, which in turn is mediated by confidence. Agricultural producer confidence is continually measured in Argentina by CREA, a non-profit organisation composed of groups of producers spread across the country striving for innovation and best practices diffusion. We leverage this measurement methodology to propose a structural equation model to explain confidence by an exhaustive collection of factors affecting the business at company, sector or economy level, providing critical insight about the range of policies that would enable agriculture to grow. High regulation and tax burdens prevailing in the market during the past decades have been identified as relevant hindrance factors to confidence. On the enablers side are the respect for property rights and the organisation effectiveness actively fostered by CREA.

Abstract The present study empirically tests the relationship between crop diversification and farm income. The study area is India, the fifth largest economy of the world, and the units of study are its households which dominates India’s labor force. The propensity score matching technique is applied on the two waves of nationally representative data on agricultural households pertaining to agricultural year 2012–13 & 2018–19 to test the relationship between crop diversification and farm income. We find a strong and positive impact of crop diversification on farm income as farm income increases by around 13 per cent if non-diversified households opt for crop diversification. Furthermore, important factors such as literacy, access to market, access to irrigation, agricultural training, farming experience, and household size positively affects crop diversification at the household level. However, recent decline in the extent of diversification in India is a cause for concern. Promotion of cultivation of HVCs by giving them such institutional supports as initial capital required for switch to HVCs and other steps that insulates them from higher risks is the need of the hour in Indian agriculture.

Hydrogeochemical and microbiological parameters of groundwater samples in the Paipayales agricultural community in western Ecuador were studied to evaluate groundwater origin, contamination, and suitability for domestic use and irrigation. The water wells studied are typically shared by multiple families which account for 37% of the total community population. A total of 31 parameters of water samples from the wells used by the community were analysed by four laboratories at the ESPOL University. The parameters analysed included microbiological and chemical compounds, along with physical characteristics typically influencing water quality. As regards the World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Ecuadorian standards, all samples failed to meet the required concentrations for at least one compound. The chemical analysis showed eight elements (cadmium, aluminium, ammonia, iron, manganese, chloride, and bromide) exceeded the maximum limits for drinking water in at least one well. Seventy percent of sampled wells failed to meet the maximum permissible limits for at least one chemical parameter. Water in all wells showed the presence of microbiological contaminants. The high natural groundwater salinity limits the ability to use this groundwater for irrigation purposes. Water in open and closed wells shows different hydrochemical and microbiological patterns. The presence of domestic animals and the lack of protection for wells may influence the quality of water. It is highly recommended that the authorities increase water supply and storage capacity to improve the availability of drinkable water in rural communities in the area.

Strengthening agricultural value chains (AVCs) and ensuring continuous supply of food is of upmost importance especially for developing countries where food security and malnutrition remain vital threats. However, effective and efficient coordination of AVCs in developing countries continues to remain an issue due to capacity constraints and inefficiencies of interventions. An Evidence Gap Map (EGM) is used to systematically retrieve, organize, and map existing knowledge on AVCs and identify gaps in the literature that will suggest future areas for effective policy interventions. The marginal increase in knowledge of a project focusing on an area of a knowledge gap may be larger than that of a project which focuses on an area with many studies. A total of 4745 studies were retrieved from a systematic search, however only 165 studies meeting inclusion criteria are included in EGM. Most policy interventions address inputs supply stage of value chains with specific focus on subsidies and agricultural loans. Governance and issues related to gender, poverty and social groups are underexplored. Most frequently mentioned outcomes subcategories were yield, agricultural profits, family income, and technology adoption. Outcomes related to risk management and product movement in time and space had the smallest frequency of occurrence. As noted, underexplored areas provide opportunities for future research.

Drought is a natural disaster with severe global agricultural and economic impacts. Accurate drought indices are needed for improved assessment and monitoring; however, most existing drought indices poorly represent agricultural drought due to complex interactions among meteorological factors, crop and soil conditions. Here, we compute an integrated drought condition index (IDCI) based on the 3-month standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI3), vegetation cover index (VCI) and soil moisture condition index (SMCI). We apply the IDCI to monitoring agricultural drought in Xinjiang, China. After regional evaluations with soil moisture, precipitation and air temperature observations, as well as with the scaled crop yields index, the IDCI was used to describe spatiotemporal changes in regional drought in Xinjiang during 2000–2018, revealing adverse impacts on crop yield (beet, wheat and vegetables). The IDCI is strongly correlated with observed soil moisture and performs better than SMCI, VCI or SPEI3, demonstrating that the IDCI is suitable for agricultural drought monitoring. The most severe drought occurred in the spring to autumn of 2008. Droughts before 2008 were more serious than those after 2008, in terms of both severity and frequency. Droughts in northern, southern and eastern Xinjiang, as well as in the Tianshan Mountains, were generally increasing before 2008 and then weakened after 2008.

Small and private subsidiary farms are important members of agricultural community. However, they still lack good infrastructure to market their products because they remain beyond the scope of state interest. The agricultural infrastructure in its present condition neither gives farmers access to co-financing nor allows them to shape the list of services they need. The research featured program documents issued by the Government of the Russian Federation that determine the development of wholesale food markets and aggregators of farm produce. The author generalized the experience of retail chains and agricultural consumer marketing cooperatives, as well as studied the cases of small rural businesses merging into marketing cooperatives in agricultural regions. The bibliographic study covered best foreign practices in shaping infrastructure for small farm produce, which were compared with Russian experience. The author also developed an abstract-logical method of establishing the interaction between stakeholders in a new system of farm produce aggregators. In this research, agricultural regions demonstrated the most acute problems in small business marketing. A good system of agricultural infrastructure supports production in all sectors of small business with growth potential. Today, small businesses are alone in organizing their own sales as wholesale distribution centers are not available to them. These centers work with small suppliers through intermediaries, i.e., aggregators. In the Kemerovo Region, an example of such aggregators is the one created on corporate principles between the Magnit retail chain and the Kalina-Malina agricultural consumer marketing cooperative. The experience demonstrated some advantages and disadvantages. The article introduces conditions for successful financial relations in commodity circulation chains in different distribution systems, including farmers, aggregators, and wholesale distribution centers. This approach reduces prices on consumer markets while increasing the efficiency of small farms.