Conservation agriculture has many potential benefits for small farmers. This study seeks to estimate the value that farmers in eastern Uganda place on some these benefits. Data from a choice experiment study are analyzed with a mixed logit model to determine farmers' willingness to pay for increases in maize yield, reductions in erosion, and reductions in land preparation labor requirements. It finds that farmers have a statistically significant willingness to pay for increases in yield and reductions in erosion, but not for reductions in planting labor. In addition, farmers in Kapchorwa district value erosion control and labor reductions more and price increases less than in Tororo district, while women care more about price increases than men do. / Master of Science / CCRA-6 (Economic and Impact Analysis)

Educators in local school systems who have been assigned the task of developing programs for gifted children often experience difficulty deciding what giftedness is. This difficulty stems from the fact that neither researchers nor educators agree as to which of a myriad of abilities actually constitute giftedness. Research literature on cultural differences suggests that a solution to the problem might lie in the development of a definition based on the attitudes and perceptions of the population to whom the definition is to be applied. In light of these suggestions, this study focused on the development of a definition of giftedness based on the attitudes and perceptions of the residents of a rural county in Appalachia. The site specific definition was subsequently compared with the most widely used conventional definition, i.e., the federal definition. A second focal point of the study was the elicitation of a list of respondents' perceptions of means of identifying gifted children and a list of appropriate educational services for these children. Again, the site specific elements were compared with their conventional counterparts. The Renzulli/Hartman Scale for Rating Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students served as a basis of comparison for the identification criteria. The conventional approach to the provision of services was derived from a synthesis of a body of literature describing special educational services for gifted children. The data collection centered around the determination of local attitudes and perceptions. The methodology, the Heuristic Elicitation Methodology, is one that is used by anthropologists and psycholinguists who seek to assess the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and preferences of specific groups. For the respondents, giftedness is a global concept comprising 18 elements. These elements are perceived as being closely related to each other in that they share a number of common features. The analysis also resulted in 16 items that are attributes of gifted people. Finally, the analysis showed that there are 13 kinds of educational services that are appropriate for gifted children. Some of these gifts/talents, attributes, and services are similar to their conventional counterparts; others are not. / Ph. D.

The Swedish breakfast is an ordinary thing. It usually consists of a bowl of ‘filmjölk’, a sandwich with butter and cheese, and a cup of coffee with milk. This nostalgic composition is routinely consumed at kitchen tables around Sweden, every morning, before the daily commute to work. Most of us consume at least one of these dairy products on a daily basis without thinking about how they arrived at our kitchen table The commercialisation of the food industry in the 20th century led to a commodification of dairy products. Through heavy marketing, dairy producers, with the goal of increasing their own profit, were able to infiltrate Swedish homes and increase their dairy consumption. Milk went from being a small scale, domestically produced and consumed food, to receiving a political status as a part of ‘folkhemmet’. Consumption of dairy products was encouraged as a way of building the Swedish welfare state (Martiin, 2024, 227-230). The Swedish breakfast was commodified. Food and shelter are two of the most basic human needs, and are inevitably affecting all of our lives. However, the environmental implications of how food is produced, sold, and consumed, as well as the impact of our domestic lives can no longer be ignored. Global warming, deforestation, eutrophication, and biodiversity loss are only a few climatic emergencies that we are facing due to humanity surpassing planetary boundaries. The correlation between economic growth and climate change is today commonly declared, and decreasing production and consumption is becoming increasingly urgent to avoid an ecological collapse. Departing from the increasing urgency of the climate emergency, this thesis investigates the environmental impact of the commodification of the dairy industry from degrowth perspective. Nested in a Northern Swedish rural context, this paper speculates about how the Swedish breakfast can be re-localised through degrowth processes, and how this can contribute to producing alternative, degrowth housing structures in the rural area Tavelsjö. A housing structure which creates low impact domesticity and a post-growth rural community.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / China Area Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This thesis is an analysis of the social, economic and ecological impacts of commercial Eucalyptus woodlots beign promoted by a private timber company in certain parts of northern KwaZulu, South Africa. The impacts are considered from the perspective of the rural farmers themselves via a qualitative methodology consisting of semi-structured, in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions. The results of the study show that these woodlots would offer only supplementary income to the majority of the growers. There is little opportunity cost in terms of land or labour, and ecological impacts can be minimised through a programme of education and responsibility on behalf of the company. However, the growers involved feel alienated from the whole tree-growing process occurring on their land. The potential for rural development and empowerment does exist, but will require a fundamental paradigm shift and long-term commitment on the part of the company promoting the woodlots. Commercial woodlots have an important role to play in the 'new' South Africa by showing that the aspirations of the rural poor need not be compatible with the profit-orientated motives of private companies. A model is proposed which consists of training, strengthening existing institutional structures, and initiating ongoing, on-farm research. Following such a model would allow commercial woodlots to form part of an appropriate social forestry land-use system for the region. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1994.

At the stage of basic study, according to the constitution and historical evolution of rural human settlements, the study puts an emphasis on the three main aspects, which influence the strategies of sustainable development of rural construction in the Southwest: comprehensive developing situation of poor rural areas, national policies related to villages and theories of rural sustainable development. The results of the comprehensive analysis show that: directed by the philosophy of ecological sustainable development with the principle of 'high science and low technology', the strategy study of technology and organisation based on improving vernacular traditional technology, is a significant breakthrough to the current research of sustainable architecture within the poor rural areas of the Southwest, and is also a most practicable and effective way towards the sustainable development of human settlements in the rural Southwest. / Following the above guideline and principles, various achievements of both domestic and oversea researches and practices on related topics were systematically analysed, categorized and assorted at the strategy study stage. Through a further verification and emendation by the Maan Village Rebuild Demonstration Project at the case-based study stage, a strategical framework of the research on the technology and its practical organization for rural sustainable architecture is carried out, considering the particular conditions of the poor rural areas in the Southwest. Based on this study result, it is expected that future related researches in this domain could be more focused and systematic; and that a series of feasible guidelines indicating more clearly the direction of practice could be provided to the decision making bodies for their practices of rural construction. / In the rural Southwest with a densest impoverished population of China, the current conditions of human settlements are generally less desirable, limited by the local conditions in economy, topography, resource, etc.. In particular, disasters from such as the several recent several earthquakes fully exposed the grim situation of local housing safety and quality of the living environment. / In view of the background, by taking into considerations of the local comprehensive situation, the paper systematically studied strategies of research and its extension on sustainable development of rural construction in impoverished rural areas from the standpoint of rural building construction, combining related achievements of both domestic and oversea researches and practices. The study focuses on the macroscopic and moderate level, and consists of three stages: foundation study, strategy study and case-based study. / Since the Wenchuan Earthquake, with the national New Countryside Construction's increasing investment in the western part of China, a summit of government-promoted construction has been arriving in impoverished rural areas in the Southwest. Nevertheless, through analysing the existing practical problems arising from New Countryside Construction in recent years, it can be discovered that the decision-making bodies of various levels who lead the rural construction, is short of both a sustainable and suitable strategical guideline and theoretical basis. Currently, research and practice related to sustainable architecture development in poor rural areas of China is still at its early case-based stage with a lack of focused and systemic view, and hence is inadequate to act as professional guidelines for governments' practices. Consequently, it is exigent and critical to gradually establish a strategical system and theoretical framework for guiding rural construction in the Southwest toward a sustainable approach. / 穆鈞. / Adviser: Edward Ng. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-01, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 290-296). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Mu Jun.

by Wong Kwok Choi. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-67). / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Rural Reforms in China after 1978 and the Regional Development of Rural Enterprises --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1. --- Historical Background --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2. --- China's Rural Enterprises and Regional Development --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3. --- Description of the Regions Included in the Study --- p.13 / Chapter 3. --- Rural Income Inequality in China after 1978: A Brief Literature Review --- p.21 / Chapter 4. --- The Methodology and Data --- p.27 / Chapter 4.1. --- The Generalized Entropy Measures --- p.27 / Chapter 4.2. --- Inequality Decomposition by Factor Components --- p.29 / Chapter 4.3. --- Extension of Shorrocks´ة Decomposition Rule --- p.33 / Chapter 4.4. --- An Asymptotically Distribution-Free Test for Inequality Index and its Decomposed Components --- p.35 / Chapter 4.5. --- The Data --- p.36 / Chapter 5. --- Empirical Results and Policy Implications --- p.39 / Chapter 5.1.a. --- "Rural Income Inequality Trends for Shanxi, Guangdong and Gansu Derived from County-Level Data" --- p.40 / Chapter 5.l.b. --- "Factor Decomposition Analyses for Shanxi, Guangdong and Gansu Using County-Level Data" --- p.41 / Chapter 5.1.c. --- "Between- and Within-Province Factor Decomposition Analysis Using Pooled County-Level Data for Shanxi, Guangdong and Gansu" --- p.47 / Chapter 5.1.d. --- Between- and Within-County Factor Decomposition Analysis Using Township and Village Level Data for Shanxi --- p.49 / Chapter 5.2. --- Discussion and Policy Implications --- p.53 / Chapter 6. --- Summary --- p.58 / REFERENCES --- p.63 / APPENDIX / Chapter 1. --- Derivation of the Extended Shorrocks' Decomposition Rule --- p.68 / Chapter 2. --- Derivation of the Asymptotic Distributions of Inequality Index and Its Decomposed Components --- p.69 / Chapter 3. --- The Double Counting Problem of GVO and GVI --- p.84 / Chapter 4. --- The Data Set --- p.87 / TABLES / FIGURES

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2002 / Refer to document

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2003 / Refer to document

M Sc (Botany) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / The Kruger National Park is a world renowned organization and is rated as one of the best nature reserves in nature conservation in the world. Despite all the efforts made to control and protect nature in the Park, there is a need for the involvement of the community around the Park. Community-based conservation in particular has been subjected to a series of scathing criticisms, and it has become increasingly acceptable to advocate a return to more coercive forms of conservation. The establishment of the Park forum consisting of the neighbouring communities and the Park requires new strategies for better integration of conservation and rural development. The interest of conservation can be threatened by various factors, mainly poverty, poaching and wildlife conflicts. The interests of the population residing in the immediate neighbourhood of Kruger National Park can be threatened by proposed wildlife management options, other neighbouring conservation areas, and new tourist development activities. Effective conflict prevention mechanisms need to be developed together with the communities and especially in the implementation process. The study presents a critical analysis of the impact of the development made by the Park to the local communities. The available policies need to be implemented in order to assess their developmental impact they are making on the communities. The community has developed a negative attitude towards the park because they think the park is not doing enough in terms of development and training and skills development. The issue of a budget is a concern because it is not clear whether the park has a budget or not for the community. In as far as the community is concerned, there is no budget available and in as far as the park is concerned, the budget is available for community development. There is no cooperation between the park and the community. It seems the park is operating parallel to the community. There are a lot of uncertainties on the side of the community which has developed into mistrust. Communities like Makuleke are involved in farming such that some of the community members have got some subsistence farming skills. If training may be given to these people, most of them may begin to engage in commercial farming. There is also a strong feeling that the Hlanganani forum which represents the community is not recognized by the KNP management. It is there to fulfill the requirement of the policy. It became clearly that Kruger National Park does not involve the forum which has been formed to function as a link between the Park and the community. The negotiated partnership between the park and the community in terms of nature conservation is now at stake. The community is now more concerned about their safety and that of their livestock because of the wild animals roaming around day and night. This is a very serious problem which exists between the park and the community which in a way may hamper the progress in terms of sustaining the relationship 5 currently being nurtured. It is recommended that the park management as the main active role player should put in place a good, viable and effective communication strategy which will form the basis of communication between the park and the community. This will assist both the park and the community to communicate the available developmental policies to the community. And if that is well communicated it is going to eliminate unnecessary conflict in terms of not knowing what the park has for the community and the policies available to address such developmental issues. / N/A