Cocoa is one of the commodities with great tradition and consumption around the world. The cocoa industry produces billions of dollars at the global level and contributes significantly to the employment of thousands of people in the countries that have acquired relevant consumption habits as well as in developing countries that produce cocoa. The Dominican Republic has been blessed and belongs to the latter group. It is the top ninth producing country worldwide and the second of the Americas. The DR has been exporting over 50,000 metric tons of cocoa per year for the past twelve years, which is destined to be used as raw material for industries in other countries. This has generated foreign exchange with a value of US$ 156,000,000 per year for the Dominican economy. In order for cocoa to reach the consumer of products like desserts, dressings, beauty products, etc., it has to go through several stages of the production process. The primary production of cocoa is just the beginning of this process, where the exports supply chain has its origin. There is not a very diverse cocoa consumption within the Dominican Republic. The local industry has been left behind, and it is characterized by the production of mostly chocolate tablets for the preparation of beverages. However the purpose of this study is not to determine what causes local consumption of cocoa to be so low in the Dominican Republic. More than 50% of the cocoa producers in the Dominican Republic have an average family income that is lower than US $2.00, which locates them below the line of poverty according by international organisms. The harvesting of cocoa is extremely important for the preservation and conservation of the environment in the Dominican Republic thanks to the forest cover and the water that originate from the plantations. This is why, although much has been done for the improvement of the industry over the past decades, it is still a necessity that the major stakeholders bring more assistance and investments to contribute to the development of the industry as a way of assuring the steady preservation of the island. The local supply chain in the Dominican Republic is composed of three major agents: producers, exporters, and industrials. These are responsible for the employment of thousands of workers that work either directly or indirectly with the main marketers of the cocoa beans. The Dominican cocoa industry pays no attention to the final cocoa product since it has specialized mostly in exporting raw beans. This means that it has been lacking the most important stage of the supply chain which is the industrialization and final marketing.

This study examines the preferences for cattle traits using mixed logit and latent class models. Choice experiment data from a 2013 mail survey of 1,052 U.S. grass-fed beef producers were used. The findings indicate that grass-fed beef producers generally preferred lower-priced, heavy animals that were small-to-medium framed and easy to handle for grass-finishing. Black animals that were retained from their own calves were preferred. Relative to intact males, steers and heifers were preferred. Except for the estimated parameter for the weight attribute, the standard deviations for the temperament, body frame, source, color, gender, and price attribute levels were significant at the P ≤ 0.05 levels, implying the presence of heterogeneity in the sample. It is important to understand the existing preference heterogeneity within the study population as it provides insights to cattle producers and cattle marketers on the value placed on cattle traits by different groups of grass-fed producers.

As part of ongoing efforts to assess ecosystem services provided by wetlands, this research focuses on estimating the private monetary value of wetland services to residential property owners in Louisiana and Alabama using a hedonic price model. Understanding that tradeoffs must be made with limited resources, valuing ecosystem services is important for policy and decision making purposes, such as determining how much public and private financial resources should be put towards wetland maintenance and restoration. Data on property transactions, wetland coverage, and built infrastructure were collected for the analysis. Based on theory and results from a Box-Cox model, the log-linear functional form was the best fit for the data. Marginal implicit prices of services from wetland ecosystems were estimated using proximity variables. Most wetland proximity variables were statistically significant and indicative of preferences for different wetland types. Based on coefficient estimates, freshwater ponds were the only preferred wetland ecosystems to live in closer proximity to in Louisiana, while freshwater emergent wetlands were the only preferred wetland ecosystems in Alabama. Homeowners preferred living further from rivers in both Louisiana and Alabama. Results are consistent with the wetland service valuation literature from across the United States which used the property-price hedonic approach.

Field data were taken on furrow irrigations and compared with a hydrodynamic model (SRFR) which was used to predict irrigation performance. The field data were the furrow shape and slope, the infiltration characteristics of the furrow, the initial and final moisture content of the furrow, the rate and time of inflow, and the advance and recession trajectories. The hydrodynamic model predicted well the advance trajectories. It predicted recession trajectories which coincided with those of the field measurements for the upper end of the furrow but varied from the field measurements for the lower end. On the average, the uniformities calculated from observed data were higher than those predicted by the model. On the average, irrigation efficiencies calculated from field measurements were higher than those calculated with the model. Storage efficiencies for the observed data were all 100 percent because all irrigations completely met the requirement.

The comparative effectiveness of 7 different combinations of cooling techniques were tested in the summer of 1986 of Tucson, Arizona. Cooling techniques include premilking holding pen fanned-sprinkling, evaporative cooled milking parlors, exit water spray, as well as shade access in postmilking area. Ten Holstein cows were selected by different hair color predominately. Mean body temperature drops due to 7 different combinations of cooling techniques are presented. Twenty one planned comparisons between any 2 of the 7 different combinations are made. Sixteen comparisons showed significant (0.05) differences. Hair colors are of null effects on either body temperature drops or the stressed body temperatures. Body temperature patterns of the 7 different combinations during the milking time are graphically presented.

The gap that exists between the technologies in developed and less developed countries leads to the possibility and necessity of agricultural technology transfer. The lower cost of transfer compared with costs of local development leads to profitable transfer for recipient country. Recipient country must perform local research to adapt the transferred technology to their local needs and to ensure that benefits are distributed in an equitable manner. Is it in the interest of the donor country to sell technology to less developed country? Conventional arguments consider only whether technology transfer to less developed country will be against the donor country's interest in agricultural product exports. It is incomplete. Economic surplus concept has been applied here to discuss both producer's and consumer's gain or lose. An empirical analysis of the U.S.-Mexico agricultural technology transfer showed that both Mexico and United States benefited from the technology transfer.

During the past two decades the fluctuation in the domestic consumption of meat products indicated precarious trends in meat consumption. Furthermore, changes in the prices of goods and income have not fully explained these trends, suggesting that demographic factors have influenced consumer tastes and preferences. Using an iterated procedure for estimating a system of demand equations the effects of own price, cross price, income, and selected household characteristics on the domestic demand for meat products were determined. The selected household characteristics consisted of health information, opportunity cost of time, and the desire for convenience. The significance of the cross price relationships, time trends, and demographic variables suggests certain consumer behavior patterns. These variables indicate that the increased availability of health information negatively affects those products which show visible fat, but not those ground or processed. The employment status of females does not influence meat consumption in any recognizable pattern. And, the acceptance of microwave ovens encourages the consumption of meat that is in ground or processed form, or packaged in small quantities.

The effort to improve furrow irrigation design and management by use of mathematical models is hampered by the difficulty of obtaining infiltration parameters that adequately describe the infiltration process in furrows. This difficulty is related to the effect on infiltration of the variability of wetted width of a furrow with depth. Detailed field measurements of twelve furrow irrigations were used to develop infiltration parameters based on three different assumptions regarding the variation of wetted width with depth. These infiltration parameters were used as input into a mathematical model of furrow irrigation, SRFR. Comparison of measured advance times, water surface elevations and volume of water infiltrated with these values computed by SRFR indicates that SRFR gives consistent results based on the input parameters.

Water conservation in metropolitan areas of Arizona is critical if limited water resources are to meet current and future demands. Timer controlled landscape irrigation systems contribute to a large portion of municipal water use, and there is currently a great potential for water savings when deficit irrigation is practiced. Such systems tend to forfeit deficit irrigation by overwatering vegetation; however, deficit irrigation may be improved if the number of irrigation cycles are reduced based on sensing soil water in the plant root zone. A patent pending electronic circuit, called the overwatering controller, has been developed and tested for this purpose. Test results show the overwatering controller has great potential as a water conservation and deficit irrigation management tool.

Given the natural resource base of South Africa, livestock production is one of the most important farming practices in the country. Of the approximately 80 % of the land surface being utilised for agriculture, almost 70 % is mainly suitable for raising livestock. The South African red meat sector contributed 14.8 % to the total gross value of agricultural production during the 2008/2009 season with cattle being the main contributor at 10.1 % while sheep contributed 2.5 % during the same period (DAFF 2010). The long-term average contribution of the red meat industry to the total gross value of agriculture production (from 1996/1997 to 2008/2009) accounted for 13.2 % and that of beef 9.4 % and sheep 2.4 % during the same period (DAFF 2010). The South African primary red meat sub-sector is unique due to the dualistic nature of the countryâs agricultural situation. There is a clear distinction between the commercial (formal) sector of the industry and the non-commercial (informal) sector. Within the ambit of the above the South African red meat sector also has to compete at a global level. For the South African red meat industry to be on par and potentially become a leader (at least in the Southern African region) it is necessary to understand the red meat value chain in detail in a holistic manner to (i) guide decision making in the public and private sector domains, (ii) identify challenges that the industry faces that impedes on its efficient functioning and (iii) create a foundation for the better understanding of the dynamic forces within the industry to allow stakeholders to internalise it in order for them to position themselves so that they can increase their performance at each segment of the industry to the benefit of the entire industry. Merely providing a descriptive profile of a particular industry is not sufficient any more within a deregulated and liberalised environment. In order to make any normative judgments regarding the performance of an industry, an in depth value chain analysis is needed. This is what this study is set out to achieve for the large (cattle/beef) and small stock (sheep/mutton-lamb) subsectors. The broader industry was investigated through interviews with different stakeholders in the red meat value chain. The analysis on the value chain in general shows that the South African cattle and sheep industries have been growing in nominal terms when considering their contribution towards the total gross value of agricultural production. However, the percentage contribution towards total gross value of agricultural production in South Africa of these two sectors has remained relatively constant during the short term (cattle at 10 % and sheep at 2 %). Critical variables that affect the performance in the feedlot industry are weaner and feed prices, as well as the price they receive in the market. The performance at primary processor level is directly linked to the price of offal, which is highly variable on a geographical level as well as seasonal. The performance of the retail sector is highly dependent on their ability to cater for specific consumers in specific geographical areas, while seasonal demand also determines purchasing and pricing patterns. This variability in prices as well as the transmission thereof through the red meat value chain is a big concern in the industry. Price transmission was therefore investigated using time series data on primary producer- and derived retailer prices data from September 1999 to December 2008. The following methodological approaches were applied, namely the Engle and Granger cointegration test as well as threshold autoregressive models. The Granger causality test was applied to analyse causality. Asymmetry in price transmission (APT) was found in both the beef and lamb value chains, indicating inefficiencies within the chain. Causality in the case of beef ran both ways i.e. from producer level to retail level and vice versa depending on supply conditions while in the case of lamb a change in price at producer level âcausesâ changes at retail level. APT is not uncommon, especially in agricultural markets and a number of reasons can cause APT in a value chain, however, in the case of the South African red meat industry a few contributors to APT was identified namely; asymmetry in information flow, menu cost and inventory cost. The red meat value chain in the Free State province was investigated by using a value chain methodology that was derived from different approaches to value chain analysis. Primary data was captured by means of personal interviews. A total of 143 commercial producers were surveyed (i.e. 19 % of the total of 745 producers that made up the original producer database used). The analysis revealed the following important aspects, namely (i) 60 % of total income generated by commercial farmers is from livestock activities, (ii) productivity is high in the commercial sector with calving- and lambing percentages averaging 80 % and 93 % for the cattle and sheep sub-sectors respectively, while the smallholder sector only averaged 30 % and 13 % for cattle and sheep respectively, (iii) older animals within the commercial beef sub-sector are mainly marketed to primary processors while younger animals are marketed to the feedlot industry while the majority of animals in the sheep sub-sector are marketed to the primary processing industry, (iv) market access in the smallholder sector is still limited to regional auctions, the informal market and to lesser extent direct sales to abattoirs, and (v) the main constraining factors in the smallholder sector is the lack of proper infrastructure which makes managing practices difficult. One major concern within the industry is animal losses, i.e. 44 % of sheep losses in the FS was due to predation. The processor industry in the FS province is highly integrated, especially in terms of primary processors/abattoirs and butcheries. Abattoirs are an important marketing alternative, especially in the rural parts of the FS province. All the role-players in the FS cattle and sheep value chains identified the variability in live animal/meat prices as their main constraint. Increasing the productivity of the producers in the smallholder sector should be a major industry objective. This objective should start with the improvement of infrastructure, education of extension officers and simplified and easier access to credit. Given the methodology developed, and the results of the study, it is strongly suggested that the methodology be applied to the value chains of the remaining red meat producing regions in South Africa. This will provide a benchmarking platform for the red meat value chain in the country. This methodology should also be re-applied regularly (every 2 to 3 years) to keep the information up to date and to provide the means by which the industry can measure change in the industry. This will be critical from a private and public sector point of view.