Suchergebnisse

Not Available ; Improved crop production forms an integral part of the intervention proposals of the UN Millennium Project to eradicate poverty and hunger in southern Africa. The objective of this study was to collect information on socio-economic aspects and farming practices that could affect adoption of improved agricultural practices. This study highlights the importance of appreciating the complexity of agricultural systems into which development agencies and researchers want to introduce improved technologies. Farmer surveys conducted in dryland and irrigation systems in Limpopo province of South Africa were used to describe the farming communities and identify factors that may affect adoption of improved crop production practices. Surveys involved 367 farmers in seven villages between 2000 and 2003. Surprisingly the incidence of mechanised cultivation was very high. Adoption of new technology in the form of Napier grass trap crops was significantly higher amongst farmers that relied only on farming as a source of income. There were no significant relationships between adoption of improved technologies and farmer age, off-farm income and cultivation methods. These factors are used to illustrate the complexity of agricultural systems and how certain aspects may affect and the role that certain farmer profiles may play in adoption/non-adoption of improved crop production strategies. It is concluded that there may be a lack of need and political will to develop strategies to improve crop production. ; Not Available

Critical of U.S. policies.

Abstract
In this paper we distinguish between three channels that determine attitudes to further immigration: labour market concerns, welfare concerns, and racial or cultural concerns. Our analysis is based on the British Social Attitudes Survey. A unique feature of the survey is that it includes questions on attitudes towards immigration from different origin countries, with populations differing in ethnic similarity to the resident population. It also contains sets of questions relating directly to the labour market, benefit expenditure and welfare concerns, and racial and cultural prejudice. Based on this unique data source, we specify and estimate a multiple factor model that allows comparison of the relative magnitude of association of attitudes to further immigration with the three channels, as well as comparison in responses across potential immigrant groups of different origin. Our results suggest that, overall, welfare concerns play a more important role in determination of attitudes to further immigration than labour market concerns, with their relative magnitude differing across potential emigration regions and characteristics of the respondent. In addition, we find strong evidence that racial or cultural prejudice is an important component to attitudes towards immigration; however, this is restricted to immigration from countries with ethnically different populations.

Several factors associated with globalization have mental health consequences. This article reviews the literature on mental health and inequality, occupational patterns and identity shifts before considering the role of globalization as an acculturative stressor. We argue that a re-evaluation of mental health policy in light of globalization must look further than current studies of migrants to consider indigenous communities where models of social experience and behaviour are changing.