A water supply tariff is a powerful water management tool that can be used to promote a number of economic, environmental and social-political objectives. In South Africa, increasing block tariffs are deemed to satisfy the domestic tariff regulations of the Water Services Act of 1997. The regulations require that the tariff supports the viability and sustainability of water supply services to the poor and discourages wasteful or inefficient water use. The application of increasing block tariff structures presents a number of problems. The main issue being the size and price of each block. Ramsey pricing proposes that consumer welfare is maximised when the mark-up in price above cost of a good is proportional to the price elasticity of demand of the good. This principle was applied in setting the block prices of an increasing block water tariff. The sizes of the blocks were based on the average water consumption of low, middle and high income consumers. The water demand characteristic of low, middle and high income households from a sample of domestic consumers in Durban were investigated. The water demand functions and price elasticity of demand for the three groups were estimated using econometric models. Two tariff structures based on Ramsey pricing principles were proposed and compared with the current increasing block tariff applied in Durban. The frequency distribution of demand of each of the three consumer groups were applied in a model to ensure the proposed tariffs met a certain revenue target. The water demand functions of each of the consumer groups were used to model how the proposed tariff structures impacted consumer surplus and water demand. The investigation found that increasing block tariffs designed with Ramsey pricing principles have a positive impact on social welfare, provide sufficient revenue for water service providers and support the conservation of water resources. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

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New and emerging virus species are becoming an increasing threat to our way of life economically and physically. Plant viruses are particularly significant as they affect our food supply and are capable of rapidly spreading to new plant species. Geminiviruses are a group of viruses that highlight this phenomenon well. Indeed Geminiviruses are some of the earliest recorded plant viruses being described as far back as 752 AD in a Japanese poem written to describe geminivirus symptoms in eupatorium leaves (Saunders et al.,2003). More recently, and in a more threatening manner, Geminiviruses have adapted to infect key crop species such as maize, sugarcane, tomatoes, beet and many more. An example of this is the introduction of grasses such as Maize into Africa, which allowed a species jump for mastreviruses, which were endemic in native grasses (Varsani et al.,2008a). Over a relatively short period of evolutionary time a number of new Geminiviruses have emerged, making them a good model for understanding the evolution and spread of new plant pathogens. The economic importance of Geminiviruses also makes an understanding of their mechanisms of adaptation crucial in preventing new emergence and minimising the impact of current strains.

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It is known that the small commodity markets are influential to people’s life, but their operations are unique. The lack of standard management has become the biggest obstacle for the development of logistics services in a commodity market. How traditional logistics model can be operated effectively in a commodity market is therefore interesting in this study. The purposes of this thesis are to characterize the commodity logistics systems, identify the challenges of logistics systems in the commodity market, and discuss how the use of e-business platform may improve the logistics system. In order to realize the purposes, the qualitative approach was used in this research. Literature review, interview and case study in one Chinese city with a big commodity market are implemented in the research. Survey study has been carried out to collect data for analyzing the logistics systems. As the main results in this thesis, small-volume, short-life cycle, variety and variability are found to be the main characteristics of a logistics system in the commodity market in the case city. The challenges are therefore about how to design and improve the logistics system so that it can adapt to these characteristics. Finally, this thesis presents the analysis on how an e-business platform can provide effective solutions to meet these challenges.

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This thesis summarises research focused on the requisites required to implement improvement initiatives successfully. Processes used to enhance supply chain performance initiatives are examined. The core hypothesis is that a preconditioning programme provides support for progressive organisations, irrespective of size or position in the supply chain. An interpretation matrix developed as a result of action research with M E Ltd was tested with NP Ltd and its suppliers. During search conferences the matrix was found to add value by serving as a common platform to record then compare observations and agree a common understanding between participants. Based on qualitative descriptions of training and learning in organisations from the 1950s to the 1970s, Barrington's model has three levels: 'systematic approach' predominating in the 1950s, 'appraisal approach' developed extensively in the 1960s and an 'attitude to continuous improvement' that was promoted after the 1970s fuel crises. This model was used as the basis for selecting collaborating establishments. The literature review concludes that conventional supplier development has the attributes of the systematic approach, which is considered the least effective level. M E Ltd was considering introducing appraisal, had few attributes of the systematic approach, and had an attitude for continuous improvement. A company specific survey was undertaken that led to a series of remedial actions which were identified as a preconditioning programme prior to supplier development. NP Ltd selected leaders by attitude, had institutionalised appraisals and once the core group was established, trained employees with systematic techniques. AAP Ltd had the attitude and systematic techniques, yet did not have appraisal systems. Principal conclusions of this are: · These case studies suggest companies can have any two of Barrington's levels. As a result, an alternate depiction of Barrington’s model is suggested. · The cases indicate that preconditioning can occur within a company, from customer to suppliers and from suppliers to customer. · The cases suggest product development roadmap stability as a root cause for negative effects to the relationship between customer and supplier.

When grain production falls short of consumption expectations in self-provisioning households, a range of responses is possible. How each household selects from and manages these responses provides the theoretical and empirical focus of this thesis. Several problematic issues in the 'coping strategies' literature are addressed, including questions of response sequencing and 'discrete stages', the timing of asset sales for food, and the relationship between consumption protecting and consumption modifying strategies. Among other theoretical advances, criteria for response sequencing are identified which explain decisions about which assets to sell for food, and when, in terms of each asset's expected return rather than its immediate 'entitlement' value. This thesis is grounded in fieldwork conducted in the West African semi-arid tropics, a region characterised by seasonally, agricultural risk and market imperfections. Drought and armyworms undermined crop production in the fieldwork village in 1987/8. The community is highly stratified economically, and striking cross-sectional contrasts in household behaviour and nutritional outcomes were observed. Food secure households practice demographic, agronomic and economic diversification, which provide access to sources of food and income that are not correlated to local economic fluctuations. Consumption insecure households have narrower options and respond to production deficits by wealth depletion (asset monetisation, debt acquisition) and severe food rationing. Responses to production deficits are not confined to strategies for acquiring food. Multiple objectives - economic, nutritional and social - are retained. Nutritional adjustments are motivated by intertemporal economic priorities. The poorest households protected their assets and rationed consumption most severely: the cost of consuming resources rises as the number and value of assets owned falls. Within households, nutritional surveillance revealed that adults rationed their food consumption earlier and more severely than their children. Adult anthropometric status may therefore be a more robust predictor of food insecurity and economic stress than child anthropometry.