What drives rural out-migration? Insights from Kosovo

Drawing on household, network and relative deprivation models of migration, this paper empirically tests the probability to migrate utilising data for agricultural households in Kosovo (circa 13,500 observations). We identify the determinants of the propensity to migrate and length of migration in the previous year, considering gender related differences. The results reveal the significance of household / personal characteristics, farm characteristics, and network effects on the propensity to migrate and length of migration in the previous year. However, we find no significant effect of relative deprivation on the propensity to migrate and length of migration. While education has a strong, positive effect on migration by women, this is not the case for men. Unprofitability and a lack of inputs, manpower and equipment, causing farmland to be left uncultivated, also stimulate out-migration

Test of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon Degradation by Nitrate-reducing Microorganisms Isolated from Tallgrass Prairie Soils

Soils are frequently contaminated with hydrocarbons such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). This contamination inhibits the growth of some microorganisms in the contaminated soils. However, the contamination may select for microorganisms capable of hydrocarbon degradationunder aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Forty five strains of bacteria isolated from tallgrass prairie soil samples were screened for the ability to grow with naphthalene as sole carbon source under aerobicconditions by culturing on minimal medium containing naphthalene as the sole carbon source. Our results showed that none of the 45 strains were able to grow on naphthalene under these conditions.Three out of the 45 strains, e.g. one strain each classified as Ensifer, Stenotrophomonas, or Serratia, were tested for the ability to degrade naphthalene under nitrate reducing conditions. All three strainswere facultative anaerobes and showed the physiology of nitrate or nitrate/nitrite reduction when grown under nitrate-reducing conditions in medium containing yeast extract. Two strains (e.g. Stenotrophomonas and Serratia) were tested for the ability to grow on naphthalene, gasoline, orbenzene under nitrate-reducing conditions. The Serratia grew poorly on the hydrocarbons, but Stenotrophomonas reached its highest O.D. values on naphthalene. However, upon re-testing a wellwashed cell suspension of the Stenotrophomonas, no loss of naphthalene was found when grownunder nitrate-reducing conditions. Although it might be expected that crude-oil contamination would select for PAH degraders, we did not find the nitrate reducing/nitrite reducing isolates to be capable of naphthalene-degradation under aerobic or nitrate-reducing conditions. ©2015 Oklahoma Academy of Scienc

Microbially mediated reduction of FeIII and AsV in Cambodian sediments amended with 13C-labelled hexadecane and kerogen

Microbial activity is generally accepted to play a critical role, with the aid of suitable organic carbon substrates, in the mobilisation of arsenic from sediments into shallow reducing groundwaters. The nature of the organic matter in natural aquifers driving the reduction of AsV to AsIII is of particular importance but is poorly understood. In this study, sediments from an arsenic rich aquifer in Cambodia were amended with two 13C-labelled organic substrates. 13C-hexadecane was used as a model for potentially bioavailable long chain n-alkanes and a 13C-kerogen analogue as a proxy for non-extractable organic matter. During anaerobic incubation for 8 weeks, significant FeIII reduction and AsIII mobilisation were observed in the biotic microcosms only, suggesting that these processes were microbially driven. Microcosms amended with 13C-hexadecane exhibited a similar extent of FeIII reduction to the non-amended microcosms, but marginally higher AsIII release. Moreover, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis showed that 65 % of the added 13C-hexadecane was degraded during the 8-week incubation. The degradation of 13C-hexadecane was microbially driven, as confirmed by DNA stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP). Amendment with 13C-kerogen did not enhance FeIII reduction or AsIII mobilisation, and microbial degradation of kerogen could not be confirmed conclusively by DNA-SIP fractionation or 13C incorporation in the phospholipid fatty acids. These data are, therefore, consistent with the utilisation of long chain n-alkanes (but not kerogen) as electron donors for anaerobic processes, potentially including FeIII and AsV reduction in the subsurface

Employment effects of CAP payments in the UK non-farm economy

This paper investigates the effect of the CAP payments on the indirectly generated non-farm jobs and whether there are differences in the effect according to business location - rural or urban - and according to CAP measures, in particular Pillar 1 and Pillar 2. A microeconomic approach is employed, based on company data from FAME dataset combined with detailed subsidies data from DEFRA. The focus is on employment in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are central for job creation. The generalised method of moments (GMM) is used to estimate the effect of CAP payments on both the level and growth of employment. The results suggest positive net spillovers of CAP payments to non-farm employment. Although the magnitude of the effect is small, it is economically significant. Relative to Pillar 2, Pillar 1 payments have a stronger positive effect. As expected, the non-farm employment effect is particularly important for rural SME

The influence of nitrate on microbial processes in oil industry production waters

Sulfide accumulation due to bacterial sulfate reduction is responsible for a number of serious problems in the oil industry. Among the strategies to control the activity of sulfate -reducing bacteria ( SRB ) is the use of nitrate, which can exhibit a variety of effects. We investigated the relevance of this approach to souring oil fields in Oklahoma and Alberta in which water flooding is used to enhance oil recovery. SRB and nitrate -reducing bacteria ( NRB ) were enumerated in produced waters from both oil fields. In the Oklahoma field, the rates of sulfate reduction ranged from 0.05 to 0.16 M S day À 1 at the wellheads, and an order of magnitude higher at the oil -water separator. Sulfide production was greatest in the water storage tanks in the Alberta field. Microbial counts alone did not accurately reflect the potential for microbial activities. The majority of the sulfide production appeared to occur after the oil was pumped aboveground, rather than in the reservoir. Laboratory experiments showed that adding 5 and 10 mM nitrate to produced waters from the Oklahoma and Alberta oil fields, respectively, decreased the sulfide content to negligible levels and increased the numbers of NRB. This work suggests that sulfate reduction control measures can be concentrated on aboveground facilities, which will decrease the amount of sulfide reinjected into reservoirs during the disposal of oil field production waters

Comparative efficiency of family and corporate farms: does family labour matter

This paper examines the comparative efficiency of family vs corporate farms. It decomposes efficiency into two distinct sources - management capabilities and organisational differences. We find evidence for organisational efficiency gains from family farming, relative to corporate farming and these appear to increase with family involvement. With regard to the management capabilities however, family farms do not compare so favourably. Furthermore family involvement does not seem to have any systematic effect on the management capabilities derived efficiency. The findings indicate that further investigation of the way family farms employ and build management capabilities is needed to substantiate any ‘superiority’ claims