Assessing the critical factors affecting the viability of small-scale dairy farms in the Punjab region of Pakistan to inform agricultural extension programmes

Agriculture in the Punjab province of eastern Pakistan benefits from one of the largest canal irrigation systems in the world. The typical mixed holding is a small, 5 ha mixed farm with three-quarters of its land used for cash crops, such as rice, wheat and sugarcane, and the remainder growing forages such as lucerne and berseem for dairy animals. Both cows and buffaloes are used for milk production, with the latter the more productive. Despite irrigation, productivity is constrained by a slow uptake of new technology such as fertilisers and new plant varieties, and poor livestock management, which leads to extended calving intervals, and a lack of available capital. This study used LP models, constructed with original local data on milk and crop production activities, to investigate the effect on profitability of alleviating the main constraints. The results demonstrate the powerful effect of using better, well managed dairy livestock, of increasing the uptake of simple technological improvements and of widening access to credit. They also show the synergy between these elements, for example the importance of finance as part of any intervention strategy. The results should enable agricultural development policy makers to rank the changes and devise better targeted programmes to deliver the changes on farm.     

模糊综合评价下的鲜活农产品配送绩效评价

由于鲜活农产品不同于其它产品,因此对其绩效评价也就有别于其它产品,文章通过构建三级指标体系,应用模糊综合评价方法,结合群组层次制定各因素权重设计了一套关于农产品配送绩效评价的模型。通过对案例结果客观分析,为物流中心鲜活农产配送提供了改进思路和方法。     

农业机械化水平对中国粮食生产技术效率的空间溢出效应研究——基于农机跨区作业视角

提升农业机械化水平是落实国家“藏粮于技”战略中的重要一环,利用1998—2020年中国31个省(市、区)的面板数据,采用空间杜宾模型,研究农业机械化水平对粮食生产技术效率的直接影响和空间溢出效应。研究发现：第一,农业机械化水平对粮食生产技术效率具有显著的空间溢出效应,在其他影响因素不变的情况下,其他地区粮食生产技术效率加权值每提升1%,本地粮食生产技术效率提升约0.579%;第二,从不同农机类型来看,农业机械化水平对粮食生产技术效率的空间溢出效应主要通过大中型农机实现,影响系数为0.252;第三,农业机械化水平对粮食生产机械效率的空间溢出效应存在于不同经纬度之间,在水稻跨区作业省份中,农业机械化水平对粮食生产技术效率的空间溢出效应为0.027。因此,提出通过进一步优化农机跨区作业机型、改进粮食品种、提升田间管理技术等方式扩大不同地区粮食作物的种植、生长和收获时间差,为农机跨区作业创造条件,实现资源效益最大化。