Power in global agriculture: economics, politics, and natural resources

Recent events, such as the 2008 food price crisis, have focussed global attention on the agriculture and food sectors. In particular, many countries have become increasingly concerned with the issue of ensuring the security of their food supply and one key element of this is who has power within the food supply chain. Through examining three dimensions of power – Economic, Political, and Natural Resources – this paper explores where power currently lies in world agriculture and how this might change in the future. Whilst recognising that power is a somewhat abstract concept, through a process of deriving potential indicators, a picture of the distribution of power is drawn. These indicators were also used to develop a simple 'global power index'. The power index indicates that the US and the EU dominate world agriculture in terms of economics and politics, but are potentially vulnerable in terms of their possession of natural resources. On the other hand, the emerging economies have lower political and corporate power, but seem better placed in terms of natural resources. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for the main food producing regions

Higher Fertilizer Inputs Increase Fitness Traits of Brown Planthopper in Rice.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the primary staple food source for more than half of the world's population. In many developing countries, increased use of fertilizers is a response to increase demand for rice. In this study, we investigated the effects of three principal fertilizer components (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) on the development of potted rice plants and their effects on fitness traits of the brown planthopper (BPH) [Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Homoptera: Delphacidae)], which is a major pest of rice in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Compared to low fertilizer inputs, high fertilizer treatments induced plant growth but also favored BPH development. The BPH had higher survival, developed faster, and the intrinsic rate of natural increase (r m ) was higher on well-fertilized than under-fertilized plants. Among the fertilizer inputs, nitrogen had the strongest effect on the fitness traits of BPH. Furthermore, both the "Plant vigor hypothesis" and the "Plant stress hypothesis" were supported by the results, the former hypothesis more so than the latter. These hypotheses suggest that the most suitable/attractive hosts for insect herbivores are the most vigorous plants. Our findings emphasized that an exclusive focus on yield increases through only enhanced crop fertilization may have unforeseen, indirect, effects on crop susceptibility to pests, such as BPH

Power in agriculture: resources, economics and politics (a report prepared for the Oxford Farming Conference 2012)

This study was commissioned by the Oxford Farming Conference to provide information for the 2012 Conference whose theme is Agriculture: tomorrow's power. This report examines where the economic, political and natural resource power currently lies in world agriculture; how that might change in the future and what it means to British farmers. This report has been produced with the support of Lloyds TSB, Massey Ferguson and Volac

Time spent on health-related activities by senior Australians with chronic diseases: what is the role of multimorbidity and comorbidity?

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of various morbidity clusters of chronic diseases on health-related time use and to explore factors associated with heavy time burden (more than 30 hours/month) of health-related activities. METHODS: Using a national survey, data were collected from 2,540 senior Australians. Natural clusters were identified using cluster analysis and clinical clusters using clinical expert opinion. We undertook a set of linear regressions to model people's time use, and logistic regressions to model heavy time burden. RESULTS: Time use increases with the number of chronic diseases. Six of the 12 diseases are significantly associated with higher time use, with the highest effect for diabetes followed by depression; 18% reported a heavy time burden, with diabetes again being the most significant disease. Clusters and dominant comorbid groupings do not contribute to predicting time use or time burden. CONCLUSIONS: Total number of diseases and specific diseases are useful determinants of time use and heavy time burden. Dominant groupings and disease clusters do not predict time use. IMPLICATIONS: In considering time demands on patients and the need for care co-ordination, care providers need to be aware of how many and what specific diseases the patient faces.The Serious and Continuing Illnesses Policy and Practice Study (SCIPPS) is an NHMRC-funded program conducted at The Australian National University and the University of Sydney and administered by the Menzies Centre for Health Policy

Out-of-pocket expenditure by Australian seniors with chronic disease: the effect of specific diseases and morbidity clusters

This is a freely-available open access publication. Please cite the published version which is available via the DOI link in this record.BACKGROUND: Out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) on healthcare is related to the burden of illness and the number of chronic conditions a patient experiences, but the relationship of these costs to particular conditions and groups of conditions is less studied. This study examines the effect on OOPE of various morbidity groupings, and explores the factors associated with a 'heavy financial burden of OOPE' defined by an expenditure of over 10% of equivalised household income on healthcare. METHODS: Data were collected from 4,574 senior Australians using a stratified sampling procedure by age, rurality and state of residence. Natural clusters of chronic conditions were identified using cluster analysis and clinically relevant clusters based on expert opinion. We undertook logistic regression to model the probability of incurring OOPE, and a heavy financial burden; linear regression to explore the significant factors of OOPE; and two-part models to estimate the marginal effect of factors on OOPE. RESULTS: The mean OOPE in the previous three months was AU$353; and 14% of respondents experienced a heavy financial burden. Medication and medical service expenses were the major costs. Those who experienced cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes or depression were likely to report higher OOPE. Patients with cancer or diabetes were more likely than others to face a heavy burden of OOPE relative to income. Total number of conditions and some specific conditions predict OOPE but neither the clusters nor pairs of conditions were good predictors of OOPE. CONCLUSIONS: Total number of conditions and some specific conditions predict both OOPE and heavy financial burden but particular comorbid groupings are not useful in predicting OOPE. Low-income patients pay a higher proportion of income than the well-off as OOPE for healthcare. Interventions targeting those who are likely to face severe financial burdens due to their health could address some of these differences.National Health and Medical Research Council, Australi

Arsenic accumulation in rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties of Bangladesh: A glass house study

A glass house study was conducted to investigate the accumulation of arsenic in tissues of five widely cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties of Bangladesh namely BRRI dhan 28, BRRI dhan 29, BRRI dhan 35, BRRI dhan 36, BRRI hybrid dhan 1. Arsenic concentrations were measured in straw, husk and brown and polish rice grain to see the differential accumulation of arsenic among the rice varieties. The results showed that the concentrations of arsenic in different parts of all rice varieties increased significantly (p BRRI dhan 35 > BRRI dhan 36 > BRRI dhan 29 > BRRI hybrid dhan 1. The order of arsenic contents in tissues of rice was: straw > husk > brown rice grain > polish rice grain. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

Evaluating surgical skills from kinematic data using convolutional neural networks

The need for automatic surgical skills assessment is increasing, especially because manual feedback from senior surgeons observing junior surgeons is prone to subjectivity and time consuming. Thus, automating surgical skills evaluation is a very important step towards improving surgical practice. In this paper, we designed a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to evaluate surgeon skills by extracting patterns in the surgeon motions performed in robotic surgery. The proposed method is validated on the JIGSAWS dataset and achieved very competitive results with 100% accuracy on the suturing and needle passing tasks. While we leveraged from the CNNs efficiency, we also managed to mitigate its black-box effect using class activation map. This feature allows our method to automatically highlight which parts of the surgical task influenced the skill prediction and can be used to explain the classification and to provide personalized feedback to the trainee.Comment: Accepted at MICCAI 201

Multimorbidity and comorbidity of chronic diseases among the senior Australians: prevalence and patterns.

This is a freely-available open access publication. Please cite the published version which is available via the DOI link in this record.Understanding patterns and identifying common clusters of chronic diseases may help policymakers, researchers, and clinicians to understand the needs of the care process better and potentially save both provider and patient time and cost. However, only limited research has been conducted in this area, and ambiguity remains as those limited previous studies used different approaches to identify common clusters and findings may vary with approaches. This study estimates the prevalence of common chronic diseases and examines co-occurrence of diseases using four approaches: (i) identification of the most occurring pairs and triplets of comorbid diseases; performing (ii) cluster analysis of diseases, (iii) principal component analysis, and (iv) latent class analysis. Data were collected using a questionnaire mailed to a cross-sectional sample of senior Australians, with 4574 responses. Eighty-two percent of respondents reported having at least one chronic disease and over 52% reported having at least two chronic diseases. Respondents suffering from any chronic diseases had an average of 2.4 comorbid diseases. Three defined groups of chronic diseases were identified: (i) asthma, bronchitis, arthritis, osteoporosis and depression; (ii) high blood pressure and diabetes; and (iii) cancer, with heart disease and stroke either making a separate group or "attaching" themselves to different groups in different analyses. The groups were largely consistent across the approaches. Stability and sensitivity analyses also supported the consistency of the groups. The consistency of the findings suggests there is co-occurrence of diseases beyond chance, and patterns of co-occurrence are important for clinicians, patients, policymakers and researchers. Further studies are needed to provide a strong evidence base to identify comorbid groups which would benefit from appropriate guidelines for the care and management of patients with particular disease clusters.Medical Research CouncilAustralian Government Department of Health and AgeingNational Healt

Beyond the risks to food availability – linking climatic hazard vulnerability with the food access of delta-dwelling households

Although climate-driven hazards have been widely implicated as a key threat to food security in the delta regions of the developing world, the empirical basis of this assertion has centred predominantly on the food availability dimension of food security. Little is known if climatic hazards could affect the food access of delta-resident households and who is likely to be at risk and why. We explored these questions by using the data from a sample of households resident within the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) delta in Bangladesh. We used an index-based analytical approach by drawing on the vulnerability and food security literature. We computed separate vulnerability indices for flood, cyclone, and riverbank erosion and assessed their effects on household food access through regression modelling. All three vulnerability types demonstrated significant negative effects on food access; however, only flood vulnerability could significantly reduce a household’s food access below an acceptable threshold. Households that were less dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods – including unskilled day labourers and grocery shop owners – were significantly more likely to have unacceptable level of food access due to floods. Adaptive capacity, measured as a function of household asset endowments, proved more important in explaining food access than the exposure-sensitivity to flood itself. Accordingly, we argue that improving food security in climatic hazard-prone areas of developing country deltas would require moving beyond agriculture or natural resources focus and promoting hazard-specific, all-inclusive and livelihood-focused asset-building interventions. We provide an example of a framework for such interventions and reflect on our analytical approach

Impact of genetically improved fish species and technology on selected hatchery and fish production in Bangladesh

The study was carried out in IAPP commanding areas from July to September 2015. A total of 8 hatchery and 240 farmers were selected for this study from Rangpur and Barisal region. About 153% Tilapia production increased which was from 34 to 86 lakh, which was 148% in Rangpur district. Thai koi production was increased about 320% in Rangpur and it was 152% in Barisal. It was observed that, per hatchery Tilapia profit was Tk. 17.35 lakh and Tk. 17.18 lakh in Rangpur and Barisal, respectively. While, total profit was 3.9 times more for Thai koi in Rangpur and it was about 1.7 times more in Barisal after IAPP-BFRI project implementation. Impact of improved germplasm on grow out system was estimated. Finding shows that before IAPP-BFRI project the average harvesting weight of tilapia fish was 122g but after using IAPP-BFRI germplasm, it increased to 194g in Rangpur district. In case of Thai Koi, the harvesting weight gain was 26% in Rangpur district and it was statistically significant at 1% level. Survey results also show that per acre profit was only Tk.86671 for Tilapia farming before IAPP whereas it was increased to Tk. 234853 after IAPP-BFRI intervention. At the same time, profit from Thai Koi was increased about 189% after IAPPBFRI activities. Similarly, profit was increased about 86% in case of Pangus farming and this positive impact was statistically significant at 1% level. Therefore, it may conclude that, farmers can significantly increase Tilapia, Thai Koi and Pangus production as well as can maximize profit using IAPP technology.Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 7 (1): 58-63, June, 201