Horticulture

The task was developed based on a framework of adaptation typology by Pelling which provides a sound analytical framework to analyse and understand key characteristics of adaptation options. The study has shown that smallholders in the Borana farming systems adopted a wide range of adaptation measures and tried to remain flexible to overcome what they perceived as changing climatic conditions. Supplementary feeding, off-farm employment and herd mobility to remote areas are the three most commonly used adaptive strategies smallholders and their communities pursued as responses to climate change . Declining seasonal rainfall with often below average extreme lows, its uneven seasonal distribution and increased temperature are key features of perceived climate change they responded to.

Particularly, increasingly frequent as well as intense drought conditions continue resulting in scarcity of pasture and water resources challenging the sustainability of traditional pastoralism. Broadly,4x8ft rolling benches speaking, amid constraining barriers, small-holders responded to climate change mainly through adjustment of farming practices and shifting into non-pastoral livelihoods. While adaptation options stated as most commonly used measures were closely similar across pastoral and agropastoral systems, there are few differences. More households are engaged in cultivation of food crops and off-farm employment in predominantly agropastoral systems as compared to pastoral ones . Whereas herd mobility to remote areas and supplementary feeding of animals are identified as the most commonly used option by more households in pastoral systems than agropastoral counterparts.

The variation can be attributed to the fact that livestock rearing is a primary source of livelihood which makes an important source of in-come in pastoral systems. Subsequently, average livestock holding is relatively larger among pastoral households than their agropastoral counter-parts. Adaptation options taken up were mostly reactive rather than proactive implying that adaptation in the study area was a response to pressures. This, therefore, confirms that the PSR model is a suitable framework for analysing adaptation to climate change in the study area. While most of the measures target to deal with current pressures from climate change, few, flood and drain table such as moving from cattle-only herd to mixed-herd , water development , and cultivation of food crops  envisage proactive adaptation to anticipated climate change as they get implemented before the next hazard manifests itself. We also found that locally adopted options featured two important features: 1) inherently resilience or transitional modes of adaptation, and 2) reliance on indigenous knowledge and local resources . Adaptation options adopted in the study area reflect a strong preference for resilience or transitional within existing institutional and cultural arrangements. Most of the adaptation options identified among the Borana envisage the goal of maintaining stability or marginal changes that utilise elasticity in farming systems and local livelihoods . In other words, buffering or coping against shocks, which represents often autonomous resilience approach to adaptation, is a favourable response to moderate negative effects of climate variability which is an essential element of dealing with climate change among resource poor farmers .

For example, the use of supplementary feed and increased herd mobility to remote areas are means by which livestock can be taken through the dry spells when drought-induced feed shortage is critical and would result in massive die-offs if no action is taken.In other words, it keeps the system on its pre-existing trajectory through maintaining the essence and integrity of the system which underpins the elasticity of the system. In view of current level of vulnerability, it appears that a predominantly resilience approach to adaptation involves low degree of intervention and does little to adequately reduce vulnerability to current and anticipated climate change and ensure co-benefit of improving rural livelihoods. Further to that, it possibly undermines long term adaptation suggesting temporal trade-off with short term resilience approaches, and increases the risk of maladaptation as these resilience measures are often autonomous and ad hoc.

If so, one may ask why almost all of the populations in the world turned agricultural within such a short time period , in fact, almost simultaneously? And if the botanical and agro-technical understanding have already existed, why was it suddenly manifested in the form of agriculture throughout the world? It seems that the answer again is—higher fitness for man. Perhaps, the trigger that apparently led to the implementation of the existing botanical knowledge and to a transition to an agricultural way of life in remote areas was the information arrived to these distant places regarding the benefits and advantage offered by this lifestyle. It is very likely to assume that even in remote areas, people heard about the novel farmers who were hard working but who owned property, gained prestige and fathered a multitude of children. So it seems, that several remote populations have tried this way of life as well, blueberry grow pot and the moment they did so, there was no turning back.

From the time the main advantage of agricultural life was realized—that is, more offspring—the idea permeated rapidly and thus, populations throughout the world embraced the idea and became agricultural by using local plants and agro techniques. Those populations that did not—awaited their destiny, until the farmers arrived and took them over. This scenario also directly suggests that there is no need to explain the emergence of agriculture with several origins in several centers but rather with one origin only or two. Even for the New World the assumption presented here is valid. From an evolutionary viewpoint, the moment the first pristine population of high-fitness farmers emerged, all other populations around had no choice but to become part of them or to act like them, when in any case, the ultimate result was to become high-fitness farmers as well. As the global population increases, demand for food, most especially protein, will increase.

Production from agriculture, including forestry and fisheries, is crucial for food security in the face of current population increase.In order to secure global food security, it is imperative that more food needs to be produced so as to strike balance between increasing human population and food availability. In this regard, sustenance of increased productivity must emphasize on the development of strategies aimed at improving yield through rational utilization of resources and proper environmental management,hydroponic bucket such as strategies abound in integrated aquaculture. Integration aquaculture with crop production and animal husbandry is one of the indubitable ways to increase the level of food production and simultaneously maintain equitable use of available land and human resources to meet human food demands in an environmentally sustainable manner. This is because integrated aquaculture productivity has been confirmed to relatively reduce cost of production  and thus the sustenance of increased food production must increase farmers’ income, nutrition and also entrench the development of strategies aimed at overall welfare.In order to encourage food security of human population, there is the need for farmers to engage in a result oriented farming system that can guarantee and sustain adequate food security in environmentally friendly manner. This review emphasizes the food security improvement contribution of integrated aquaculture in an environmentally friendly manner. Integrated aquaculture is a method of farming which is generally believed to help the rural poor to utilize resources at their disposal towards maximizing production and making more profit from their investment.

IA reduces waste generated from different sub-systems on the farm and also increases water use efficiency through the utilization of waste in one sub-system as resource or input in another sub-system within a system of production,recycling and re-use of water in one sub-system for irrigation in another sub-system. This will, however,reduce the negative impact of farming on the environment due to zero tolerance to waste discharge to the environment while at the same time improve economy of production for profit maximization of the farmers. The importance of water in agriculture production cannot be over-emphasized. In production from agriculture,including fish production, water is gotten majorly from precipitation, underground water and reservoirs including rivers and lakes. However, water supply from these sources is not entirely reliable. The growing world population requires increased food production, while available water resources may not be sufficient for agriculture. This alarming situation can only be resolved if water is managed more efficiently, so that yield of agriculture produce per unit of water consumption increases. To increase agriculture per water usage, a system that will ensure recycle and re-use of water will need to be entrenched. Such system is obtainable in IA.Water productivity is defined as the ratio of the net benefits from crop,forestry, fishery, livestock, and mixed agricultural systems to the amount of water required to produce those benefits.

The Pilbara region Western Australia is a fast area within itself with many possible locations that could be considered as having potential for a viable microalgaebiomass cultivation plant. There is also access to an unlimited source of water, and Western Australia is one of the sunniest places in the world. Many extensive studies of the region have been carried out using GIS modeling to determine the most suitable location for microalgae cultivation offer some insight as to the best location to base our design model on. The largest areas identified as capable of algae biofuel production exist along the coast from the south west of Karratha to the north west of Port Hedland. See Figure 6 This region provides ideal climatic conditions and suitable land in terms of limited topography relief and competing land use .Infrastructure and transport for this region are well developed with PortHead land set to expand its port offering good potential for the transport to process plants or the export of microalgae biofuel.

Port of Port Headland is set to increase its berth capacity from 9 to 21 within the inner harbor with a further 20berths planned as part of the outer harbor . The site is reasonable flat, nft system naturally well drained, with low growing vegetation and is made up of mostly sand with the presence of some stones to small rocks.Most of the coastal belt is alluvial plains of sand  The soil type is a determining factor in the construction method of ponds particularly in regards to permeability. Sites that have sandy or gravel composition will either need clay brought in to seal the bottom of the pond or a synthetic liner, both of which would incur additional cost . Geological soil testing would need to carried out before any construction was to commence. The transfer of water from the salt lake to the open pond can only be achieved from a pumping system with pumping also required for smaller applications such as to input of nutrients or water level control.

All of these applications need to be carefully monitored by computer system that control all pumping and axillaries. The central processing facility will be equipped with the programming units that control the water/wastewater flow into and out of the pond while also automatically monitoring and controlling nutrient delivery . In transferring water from the supply to the pond, the pumping system must take into account factors such as the required suction, flow, pressure, to achieve the required results whilst also taking into account economics and energy requirements. Pump performance is measured in terms of the flow rate that the pump can discharge against a given head at a given efficiency . The pumping system needs to be able to replenish the water supply after occurrences such as natural evaporation and operational losses such as those that take place during harvesting.

The Pilbara region is generally considered to be of a dry and hot region resulting in high evaporation rates which need to be carefully considered when designing an open pond raceway pumping system. It is noted that the Pilbara region contains some of Australia’s consistently hottest places with highly irregular rainfall, hydroponic gutter where average yearly evaporation  exceeds average yearly rainfall . Evaporation losses in open pond raceway systems can be higher than reservoirs as a result of their structural type and continuous movement. However algae ponds are not reservoirs, being much shallower and mechanically mixed,and thus are expected to have high evaporation rates . Water supply filtration is critical in the operation of microalgae cultivation systems for the removal of many foreign organic and inorganic particles and organisms.Filtration as a fluid-particle separation process is an engineering practice of long standing .The pump station has 2 levels of filtration including a pre-filter that must be installed upstream of the pumps to ensure that larger foreign materials do not enter the pump resulting in pump damage. If an impeller becomes clogged or damaged the pump must be pulled to the motor room floor for servicing. The second system of filtration within the pump station is an ultraviolet system designed to kill any living organism’s present in the water supply that may contaminate or compete with the desired crop. One of the main obstacles for continuous productivity in microalgae cultivation is the presence of biological contaminants capable of eliminating large numbers of cells in a matter of days or even hours.The pre-filter must be fine enough to remove any particles from the water that may be damaging to the pumping system but not so fine that blockages are take place quickly or too much friction loss occurs due to difficult passage. In the long term filters or strainers become clogged: this is their purposw.

The remainder of the paper is organised as follows: The next two sections describe the applied methodology and data sources that are used in the study. Finally, the paper concludes with a summary of the main findings, a discussion regarding the investment strategies of Greek organic cherry farmers and critical suggestions for agricultural policy planners. Analysing cherry farmers’ decision making entails understanding how they rank activities with uncertain outcomes,given the stochastic yield of cherry orchards and the stochastic market price of cherries. The economic evaluation of organic and conventional cherry production is implemented considering the whole range of net present values and their associated probabilities, vertical rack system along with the relative preferences  of the decision makers.

To assess and compare the economics and the risk efficiency of conventional and organic cherry production, this study employs stochastic simulation as an unconventional method that incorporates risk.Stochastic dominance and stochastic efficiency with respect to a function  analyses have a major advantage in that they reduce the set of all possible risky choices to a small group of alternatives. The SERF technique is a novel improved methodology for assessing and ranking risky alternatives but empirical studies using SERF are limited, Especially in agriculture, SDRF and SERF analyses have been used to compare risky alternatives regarding farm production, marketing and financial matters. In Greece, SERF analysis has been used by Tzouramani et al.  to determine risk efficiency between organic and conventional lemons and citrus cultivation and by Tzouramani et al. , to explore the economic viability of conventional and organic sheep farming.

The annual production costs for both organic and conventional cherry production were calculated in accordance with their deterministic enterprise budgets. The production cost for conventional cherries is 25.25%higher than for organic cherries, indicating a more intensive production system. The most important element of the conventional cherry production cost is the labour cost , which is 71.42% greater than that of organic production, as conventional production demands more labour  during the harvesting season, more field operations  and more intensive pruning and irrigation.Capital cost is also an important element of total cost in both activities. The purchasing cost of fertilizers and pesticides constitutes almost half of the capital cost. In the case of conventional production, mobile grow rack this is due to the large quantity of inputs used, whereas in the case of organic production, this is due to the high price of certified organic pesticides and herbicides. Stochastic dominance analysis is applied to investigate the interest of farmers in the expansion of the cherry sector.

Investment in either organic or conventional agriculture should improve both economic and environmental performance. Given the current economic crisis and the limited availability of agricultural funding, economic performance is crucial for Greek farmers, and improved competitiveness should be their core aim. Diversification into higher-value crops would be an option for a large number of small and medium farmers if they could manage the technical, financial and marketing requirements of the new cultivation. In this study, a stochastic efficiency with respect to a function analysis is applied to evaluate two investment options: an organic cherry orchard, and a conventional one. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is employed to examine the economic effect of the organic subsidy level.The stochastic model estimates the probability of each NPV outcome occurring, providing an NPV range,with minimum, maximum and mean values. Simulated distributions of expected net returns were developed in a Simetar environment. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to determine the mean and variance of the NPV for conventional and organic cherry production.

The cumulative distribution functions  were constructed to demonstrate that the probability of a NPV for each activity was less than a particular CDF level. Although CDFs provide useful information on the profitability of the compared activities, the preferred activity for a certain decision maker depends also on his/her risk aversion. To determine the preferred alternative, stochastic dominance and SERF analyses were applied.A crucial element in the formation of NPV is the level of organic subsidy. Under the previous Greek policy scheme, organic cherry farmers benefited from a 900 €/ha subsidy. However, after 2007, this subsidy was abolished.To investigate its importance, we applied a sensitivity analysis using various portions of the level of subsidy provided under the previous policy scheme. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution many environmental issues have started emerging due to the growing human dependency manufactured items,transport and the constant desire to increase personal wealth.

The inclusion of these variables allows us to control for both the level and the direction of net worth and profit. Apparently, there is a large degree of overlap between the operational and financial risks of a firm being captured by some of these variables. “The world food order is increasingly fragile, supplemented by ad hoc food assistance programs, and countered by alternative agricultures”. Food systems in the world are the basis for food production, the social characteristics of behavior, and the governmental programs associated with these activities. Due to the increased complexity of food insecurity in a highly developed country like the US, hydroponic fodder system more diversified research has been conducted in order to demystify its causes. On average, food travels more than 1600 km from farms to plate and more than 15% of American households were located in food deserts.

Having one of the fewest supermarkets per capita , Texas’ food system disconnect is one of if not the worst nationwide.Main stream US food system is of global large scale where farmers, corporations, and government programs synchronize their activities in order to ensure food security. Nevertheless, a network of “Smaller-scale, locally oriented, flexibly organized farms and food producers” has been progressing all over the country in order to close the gaps in food shortages. The idea of civic agriculture is the origin of current industrialized food system which offers hope of connecting the broken social ties and ailing communities. Civic agriculture in general can be grouped into five main categories: home gardeners, community gardeners, charity growers, educational gardeners,and market growers . Multifaceted inter-correlated factors are inherent to each of these measures.

Preliminary research has not proven its affordability . Examples of spatially spreading food models inTexas include farmers market, food coops, and master gardeners.Although there is evidence that small-scale, local agricultural models positively affect social and communityties, the literature is inconclusive about the social benefits of civic agriculture. Can a small local farmer’s market or a food coop break the cycle of a global or a national unevenly distributed food system?The purpose of this study is to thoroughly examine this possibility for a distinctive state like Texas. Establishing food system fairness is essential to a civic society where social aspects connect the economy with the state.The study of access to fresh food in Texas measures the extent to which civic agriculture is fostering fairness in the state’s food system. Despite the presence of many governmental programs like the Farm Bill, Food Surplus Commodities Corporation, and Food Stamp Program; field crops benefit most from the mainstream industrialized food system,aeroponic tower garden system indicating the increased demand for food security  especially for low incomeresidents.Researchers have different views of the role of civil society. Some argue that it has the ability to fortify and build itself by some people’s united actions as in the example of civic groups that are active in the community and its politics. Others see the need for the government to take care of all the community needs while others argue that the society needs to embed economic transactions in its structure but with prioritizing individuals’ needs.

Applying this to food system, by incorporating local food systems within the society in the form of civic agriculture, the community can strengthen its social links, which supports justice in the food system. Overall, this study supports the theory of increasing the number of fresh food outlets can combat spread of food deserts. The spatial distribution of farmers market has significant association with food insecurity in Texas. Census tracts in food deserts have many correlated factors that call for a more thorough investigation; where the factors of age, sex, race, income,obesity, education attainment, and health risk can be investigated concurrently in order to understand the effects of their interactions.While previous nation-wide research concluded that farmers markets were not significant for the whole country but were significantly inversely associated to health issues like obesity rates, the findings from this study suggest a number of interesting implications of the potential of civic agriculture to resolve food insecurity in Texas. Being black increases a Texan’s resident odds of being in a food desert by 3%, by 1% for American Indians, 4% for Asians, and 9% for other races. Living in an urban census tract increases the odds of being in a food desert by 630% and for each 1 mile increase in distance to farmers market, there is a 103% increase in the odds of being in a food desert.

Research in CRM of Chinese RCBs is in scarcity. This research attempts to develop a CRM framework for Chinese RCBs. The framework incorporates main factors that affect credit risk facing RCBs in relation to environmental, operational,financial and guanxi variables contributing to failures of SMEs and farming households, the main customers of RCBs in China. The framework outlines the procedure that RCBs can follow to develop its own credit risk analysis model in accordance with their portfolios of loans and the characteristics of their customers. This paper is organized as follows. The next section introduces China’s banking reform and the development of China’s RCBs. The third section provides a literature review on CRM. The fourth section analyses factors contributing to failures of SEMs and farming households and proposes a CRM framework for RCBs in China.

The final section concludes the paper and highlights the limitations and future research directions vertical hydroponic nft system. China’s banking reform was carried out within the broader context of China’s transition from a planned economy to a market economy. Prior to the beginning of the reform, China’s banking system consisted of only one financial institution,the People’s Bank of China. The “first stage” of the banking reform took root in the early 1980s by creating a two-tier bank system. The PBC became the central bank. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China  was carved out of the PBC and, together with the China Construction Bank , Bank of China  and the Agricultural Bank of China , the four so-called specialized banks became the second tier of the system. The Big Four banks were100% state-owned. In the early stage of reform the specialized banks were allowed very little scope to extend commercial or consumer credit.

The second stage began in 1994 when the Big Four banks were relieved of their role in “policy lending”2. In 1995 the Commercial Bank Law of China was promulgated,nft hydroponic system recognising the status of state-owned specialised banks as commercial banks operating according to market based banking principles of capital-adequacy, prudence, profitability, risk recognition, liquidity and responsibility for own profit and loss. In 1997 the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council held the first National Financial Operations Conference and introduced several important measures to accelerate the reforms.First, the government issued RMB270 billion  in special government bonds to recapitalise the Big Four banks. Second, new regulations abolished the credit quota policy  and, instead,allowed banks to adopt asset-liability management. Finally, in a dramatic and significant step that marks the transition from the second to the third stage of banking reform, the central government transferred RMB1.4 trillion  in nonperforming loans from the books of the state-owned commercial banks to new entities dubbed Asset Management Companies 3.

The third stage of banking reform is to turn state-owned commercial banks into joint-stock commercial banks with the state as the controlling share holder.In late 2003 the Law on the People’s Bank of China and the Commercial Banking Law were amended to establish the China Banking Regulatory Commission to oversee the reform of regulation of banking. Changes to the Commercial Banking Law freed the Big Four from the requirement to provide loans to State Council-approved projects and permitted them to carry out commercial banking activities—such as trading government bonds, dealing in foreign exchange and offering credit card services.As of end-2010, China’s banking sector comprises of two policy banks and China Development Bank , five large commercial banks, 12 joint-stock commercial banks, 147 city commercial banks, 85 rural commercial banks, 223rural cooperative banks, 2,646 rural credit cooperatives , one postal savings bank, four banking assets management companies, 40 locally incorporated foreign banking institutions, 90 foreign bank branches, 63 trust companies, 107finance companies of corporate groups, 17 financial leasing companies, four money brokerage firms, 13 auto financing companies, four consumer finance companies, 349 village or township banks, nine lending companies and 37 rural mutual cooperatives. In addition, a total of 395 new-type rural financial institutions were established, including 349 village or township banks, nine lending companies and 37 rural mutual cooperatives. The deposits attracted by these institutions to talled RMB75.27 billion, loans totaled RMB60.09 billion, and profits totaled RMB950 million. Meanwhile, 86.7 percent of the loans made by these institutions went to rural and agricultural uses as well as to SMEs. Among all,loans dispersed to SMEs alone numbered 31,000 and valued in aggregateRMB31.38 billion or 52.2 percent of the total value, while loans extended to rural households numbered 237,000 and valued RMB20.74 billion or 34.5 per cent of the total.

This statement being proved by the studies in , shows that the machine learning based model give a better prediction than the linear regression algorithm to predict rainfall. An artificial neural network computational tool is strong and data driven.Its characteristic is self-adaptive, flexible which has the capacity to learn and handle nonlinear and tough underlying characteristics of any physical process with high grade of accuracy. Thanks to its ability in providing a better solution to complex problems that significantly reduce noise and optimize approximations,ANN is getting more attention from a lot of scholars in their attempts to unravel the inner workings of weather forecasting process. Traditional methodologies are often found to encounter constant challenges in addressing non-linear physical, spatial and temporal processes as well as the underlying uncertainties that exist in certain parameters used.

The attributes of the ANN model have therefore made it clear about its suitability to be deployed in studies pertaining to weather forecasting. ANN consists of several techniques such as the feed forward neural networks,back propagation neural networks and radial basis function neural network. RBFNN structure is similar to typical ANN structure, rolling bench that consists of one hidden layer that contain three main parameter that is output weights,widths and centered.  highlights that RBFNN is the most suitable machine learning technique to be deployed in the study that scrutinizes rainfall forecast in comparison to other techniques including Generic Programming, Support Vector Regression, M5-Rules, M5-Model trees and k-Nearest Neighbor. This argument has been further resonated by , in which they conclude that RBFNN provides higher accuracy of results in rainfall forecast as compared to the back propagation neural network technique. Besides, another study conducted by finds out that the use of multilayer perceptron is suitable for in Atner while RBFNN in Dharni RBFNN.

Thus, we have proposed a model of weather forecasting using Radial Basis Function Neural Networks  order to predict weather in a very effective and efficient way and to enhance the rainfall prediction in Malaysia by utilizing the RBFNN model. Other than its proven ability to provide a better rainfall prediction,this model also employs a better algorithm that is far more simplistic and with a faster learning capability. Rainfall prediction relies heavily on important weather-related parameters that include air pressure, temperature and wind speed that should certainly be considered in the development of a sound algorithm in rainfall prediction. Therefore, an analysis has been conducted across a few meteorology datasets as data input centered around the important parameters such as temperature, wind speed,grow table hydroponic humidity as well as air pressure. The concept of Artificial Neural Network is a network composed by a collection of processing units that are computer-programmed based on the working of human brain. The human brain is a complex system capable of processing a large amount of information at a time. The neural network is a processor that is made up of artificial neurons as the main the processing element.

The application of the neural network has been extensive in the areas of pattern classification,grouping, prediction and optimization among many others. Rainfall is one of the natural phenomena with non-linear attributes, thus, requiring anon-statistical method that is far more complex as to understand the rainfall behavioral patterns just like how the Artificial Neural Network does.RBFNN was first introduced by Broom head dan Lowe in the year 1988.This paper use the algorithm of Radial Basis Function Network  because RBFN is one of the neural networks with capability to predict non-linear attributes and with faster learning speed. RBFN is also a particularly distinctive artificial neural network as it leverages on the basis function network as the active function. The application of RBFN is used widely particularly for function approximation, time series forecasting and classification. RBFN model that comprises of three layers, the input layer, the hidden layer and the output layer is shown in Figure 1.Every layer is made up of nodes that connected one another as illustrated by Figure 1. As demonstrated in Figure 1, every neuron is also connected with one another. This information will later enter the hidden layer where the learning process shall commence. This directly implies that the calculations are performed so that system learns the patterns by manipulating the weighted value until it matches the output value.Thus, the limitation of radial basis function formula must contain only real values. In this study, statistical analysis that has been used is root mean square error and the percentage of accuracy. The optimal RBFNN structure is determined by manipulating the hidden neuron value between 4 and 99. The RMSE values between the predicted values and measured values for the RNFNN model are illustrated in Table 1. This study discovers that the hidden neuron value has less affect on the performance of the RMSE value which is between49.92% up to 51.10%.

In addition, veterinary costs for animal health service deliveryare apparently high especially following the liberalization of the livestock industry. An ethno-veterinary approach combined with social service delivery to improve on behavioral change on farming practices, and drug usage, improved extension service delivery as well as efficient livestock industry management may be required for the sustainability of the livestock industry to control the increasing HP burden in the farming communities of Uganda and the neighboring East and Central African countries. The development of new information communication technology  brings people together and creates a sense of belonging in the virtual community . Online games, such as massive multiplayer online role playing games,allow hundreds and even thousands of people to play and interact simultaneously. The players of these games can maintain a regular character that grows and changes to compete with other characters.They are given opportunities to interact with other players and participate in a socialized virtual environment .

Online game communities are thus structured similar to the “third place”, which facilitates sociability among players in the virtual world and promotes offline social connections by stimulating collective activities. Researchers have further identified the function of social support , social capital , and the socio-emotional aspects  of online games. Since third-party developer tools were released by Facebook in 2007, stackable planters a new class of games called socialgames has been designed and becomes a phenomenon. This term refers to games that have minimal barriers to entry and are specifically embedded within social networking sites that use the players’ social networks for enhancing gaming experiences.There are four major components of social games: SNS based, multiplayer,real identity, and casual gaming . Popular social games such as Farmville and Pet Society are based on customization and resource management which bring people together to share in the responsibility for social interaction without actual copresence or interaction.

The motivation to play social games lies in the psychological need to be in the company of others  and use the game to stimulate future social interactions .However, while social capital has been linked to positive social outcomes, the psychological benefits reaped from Facebook use are mixed  . In addition, although recent research has found that the relatively heterogeneous nature of MMORPG communities serve as potential sources of bridging social capital  and can even contribute to bonding social capital due to the collaborative nature of the games , stacking pots mixed effects of MMORPG play were also produced. While researchers have investigated the sociality of virtual worlds in the MMORPG settings, not much has been done on social games as they are relatively newer. The notion of social capital broadly suggests that the resources inherent in one’s relationships may be used to achieve economic ends . Social capital is further defined as the relationships between social actors and organizations that can facilitate action and create value .

It is an “investment in social relations by individuals through which they gain access to embedded resources to enhance expected returns of instrumental or expressive actions” .Farmville players gain top performers by having as many neighbors as possible. For example, visiting a neighbor’s farm allows players to complete tasks, such as fertilizing a few of their crops, feeding their animals,and scaring away crows and gophers, to earn cash and game experience. However, players can visit a given neighbor only once a day, meaning the more neighbors one has, the more one can visit to earn daily cash and game experience. Having many neighbors also increases the chance someone will return the favor. In addition,players in co-op farming challenges with friends build stables, add facilities, decorate, and expand their property to level up. The more in-game neighbors one has, the faster one can complete the task to advance. In fact, it is almost impossible to exp and land ownership, complete challenges, and even advance in this game without a certain number of in-game neighbors unless players spend real money.However, the extent to which players spend real money on virtual items may be moderate according to a recent study on players’ engagement with various features of social game play . The rationale is that to avoid spending too much money, players must aggregate and mobilize their social networks to advance in the game.Farmville players invite friends as in-game neighbors to receive more in-game benefits and achieve higher scores within a larger friend network. Players are generally open to the gaming community to exchange for information,and many online groups or discussion boards are designed for players to obtain many friends a sin-game neighbors .

Shin  indicated further that income derived from economic activity and loans based on the leverage in the financial market exacerbated wealth inequality as higher income groups tended to utilize more loans in the monetized economy, widening the gap between the rich and the poor.As such, the mainstream literature on female-headed households and poverty indicates that female-headed households constitute the “poorest of the poor”, and several other studies have shown a link between female-headed households with poverty and low socioeconomic status. In 2019,Lebni et al. conducted a qualitative study among female-headed households in Kermanshah, West of Iran. They collected data through semi-structured interviews with female-headed households who were selected purposefully. They analysed their data using conventional qualitative content analysis and they found that female-headed households faced many challenges that could become a big threat or an opportunity.

A study was conducted to investigate the nature and determinants of income inequality in mountain areas using the case of Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania.Specifically, flood and drain tray the study used the cross-sectional research design, income percentile shares, Gini coefficient and Lorenz curves, as well as, the coefficient of variation, to pinpoint the nature of income inequality in the study area using both pooled and disaggregated data. The determinants of income inequality were investigated using the step by step multiple linear regression model. The results of analysis of income-inequality revealed existence of income inequality. At the50 percentile, the mean incomes for disaggregated analysis were the highest for farmers with farmland located far from homestead, followed by those of farmers who accessed extension services during the past two years and farmers who were members of community-based financial institutions. The mean incomes were the lowest for female-headed households, followed by farmers who did not access extension services as well as farmers with farmland located close to home stead.

The farmlands located far from homestead were mostly found along the footsteps of the mountains or lowland areas where landholdings were relatively larger allowing for more intensification and crop revenues than the farmlands located in the upper gradients. Membership to community-based financial institutions had the most equalizing effect on income. Income inequality was the highest among farmers with farmland located far from homestead. Unexpectedly however, nft hydroponic income inequality amongst farmers who accessed extension services was higher than that of their counterpart farmers who did not access the services.We attribute this to variations in personal household characteristics , and economic characteristics .Overall, crop production was the main source of income in the agroforestry systems of the study area, followed by timber products. The contribution of income from non-farm income generating activities was the lowest but these sources constituted a major income-inequality increasing component in the pooled sample.

However, the results of disaggregated analysis showed that “non-farm sources” were decreasing income-inequality for farmers with farmlands located close to homestead, for female-headed households, for farmers who did not access extension services, and for farmers who were members of community-based financial institutions. This implies that diversification of income sources is an important strategy for reducing income inequality in mountain areas.Accordingly, policies and initiatives that aim to promote diversification of livelihoods are more likely to reduce income inequality in these areas and are therefore recommended.The values of coefficients in our step by step multiple linear regression model suggested that household assets, size of farmland, and age of household head positively influenced household income and household size negatively influenced household income.

They can check soil erosion to some extent, increase soil fertility, reduce salinity; alkalinity,acidity, and desertification, ultimately improve soil health which keeps the land suitable for the sustainable production of diversified products . According to Sharma et al. , agroforestry-related practices, such as, the use of multi-purpose tree species, relay-cropping, terracing and contour cultivation, soil and stone bunds, strip as well as alley cropping are appropriate to fulfil the needs of low-resource farmers by restoring and increasing land productivity. In fact, the mainstream literature on mountainous agroforestry farming systems tends to support the assertion that agroforestry could ameliorate the living conditions of the local population and protect the natural reserves from human disturbance .

Elsewhere in Tanzania, hydroponic grow system in the East Usambara Mountains, the study by Reyes et al. for example, indicated that the households who practiced improved agroforestry systems obtained twice as much annual gross income compared with their counterpart farmers who used traditional practices. They also found that about 40% of farmers who practiced improved agroforestry were securing enough food throughout the year, compared with only 18% for farmers who used traditional practices.However, empirical evidence which shows the effect of agroforestry farming systems on poverty and income inequality is lacking, at least in the context of mountain areas. The evidence would help policy-makers and other stakeholders to formulate suitable policies, plans and strategies to achieve sustainable development in these areas.

It should be noted here that, the levels of income-inequality in mountain areas may vary significantly between farming households,farmland locations and farmers’ economic characteristics. To the best of our understanding, these characteristics have not yet received adequate attention among scholars as most studies attempted to evaluate income inequality in mountain areas did not consider these. In addition, studies which disaggregate inequality based on differences in household and farm characteristics such as, farmland location, gender, and access to extension, as well as membership to community-based financial institutions, like the Savings and Credit Co-operative Society and Village Community Bank , are lacking. Equally important, much of the previous research on inequality uses time series or panel data focusing on broader scales, such as national, regional and multinational levels.

Studies which use cross sectional data while focusing on small scale sites and locations such as, hamlets,indoor garden villages and wards of mountain areas are lacking. Where the cross-sectional data is applied, most researchers have ignored the effects of variation in household personal characteristics, farming characteristics,economic characteristics as well as the existing transforming structures and processes. In the Karakoram valleys of Pakistan, for example, Ullah et al.  investigated the nexus between financial inclusion and improvement in the living standards of mountain people, and reduction in economic poverty ,multi-dimensional poverty and income inequality using the Quasi Experimental Designs, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke poverty measures, Alkire et al. methodology,Gini Index and Quintile technique. In addition, they used a Logistic Regression technique to identify the major drivers of economic poverty, multidimensional poverty and income inequality using non-disaggregated cross sectional data. They found a positive synergy among inclusive finance and living standards and a negative connection between financial inclusion and economic poverty, multidimensional poverty as well as income inequality.

Their results of logistic regression showed that financial inclusion was a potential determinant of economic poverty reduction though it was found to be an insignificant tool for eradicating multidimensional poverty.In Poland, Kata and Wosiek used time series data covering a period of2004-2018 to investigate the redistributive effects of agricultural policy and the importance of income inequalities among agricultural holdings for sustainable agricultural development. They used the process of concentration of production factors in this sector, as well as, the level of budget support using pooled data.Specifically, they applied the Gini coefficient, concentration index, and multi-variate regression analysis to establish a relationship between the processes of income polarization in agriculture and the process of concentration of production factor as well as the level of budget support.