Dynamics of Maize Consumption and its Implication in Maize Technology Demand in Nepal

Shriniwas Gautam Dyutiman Choudhary (2018, [Capítulo de libro])

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA MAIZE TECHNOLOGY VARIETIES

Farmers’ perspectives as determinants for adoption of conservation agriculture practices in Indo-Gangetic Plains of India

Ajay Kumar Mishra ML JAT (2022, [Artículo])

Understanding the farmer's perspective has traditionally been critical to influencing the adoption and out-scaling of CA-based climate-resilient practices. The objective of this study was to investigate the biophysical, socio-economic, and technical constraints in the adoption of CA by farmers in the Western- and Eastern-IGP, i.e., Karnal, Haryana, and Samastipur, Bihar, respectively. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to 50 households practicing CA in Western- and Eastern-IGP. Smallholder farmers (<2 ha of landholding) in Karnal are 10% and Samastipur 66%. About 46% and 8% of households test soil periodically in Karnal and Samastipur, respectively. Results of PCA suggest economic profitability and soil health as core components from the farmer's motivational perspective in Karnal and Samastipur, respectively. Promotion and scaling up of CA technologies should be targeted per site-specific requirements, emphasizing biophysical resource availability, socio-economic constraints, and future impacts of such technology.

Smallholder Farmers Agents of Change Technology Diffusion Climate-Smart Practices CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA SMALLHOLDERS SOCIAL STRUCTURE IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE

Distance learning for farmers: Experience during the pandemic

Andrea Gardeazabal (2023, [Documento de trabajo])

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic's disruption of farmer training—a crucial component for enhancing the resilience and livelihoods of smallholder farmers—CIMMYT innovated educational solutions to sustain capacity building in agri-food systems. Addressing the challenges of limited mobile device access, poor internet connectivity, and digital illiteracy, CIMMYT implemented two pilot projects in Mexico. These projects facilitated distance learning for adult farmers in rural areas, employing both internet-based and non-internet methods. The non-internet approach utilized traditional media like print, while the internet-based approach leveraged WhatsApp for educational content delivery. Building on these experiences, CIMMYT expanded its offerings by creating micro -courses delivered through WhatsApp, hosted on the Co-LAB's new Learning Network platform, specifically targeting farmers. This paper delves into the various strategies, methods, and techniques adopted, documenting the learning outcomes, results, and key conclusions drawn from these innovative training initiatives.

Distance Learning Digital Inclusion Innovative Training CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA DISTANCE EDUCATION CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT METHODS COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Sustainable maize intensification through site-specific nutrient management advice: Experimental evidence from Nigeria

Miet Maertens Oyakhilomen Oyinbo Tahirou Abdoulaye Jordan Chamberlin (2023, [Artículo])

There is growing evidence on the impacts of site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) from Asia. The evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where SSNM developments are more recent and where conditions concerning soil fertility and fertilizer use differ importantly from those in Asia, is extremely scarce. We evaluate a SSNM advisory tool that allows extension agents to generate fertilizer recommendations tailored to the specific situation of an individual farmer’s field, using a three-year randomized controlled trial with 792 smallholder farmers in the maize belt of northern Nigeria. Two treatment arms were implemented: T1 and T2 both provide SSNM information on nutrient use and management, but T2 provides additional information on maize price distributions and the associated variability of expected returns to fertilizer use. We estimate average and heterogenous intent-to-treat effects on agronomic, economic and environmental plot-level outcomes. We find that T1 and T2 lead to substantial increases (up to 116%) in the adoption of good fertilizer management practices and T2 leads to incremental increases (up to 18%) in nutrient application rates, yields and revenues. Both treatments improve low levels of nutrient use efficiency and reduce high levels of greenhouse gas emission intensity, after two years of treatment. Our findings underscore the possibility of a more gradual and sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture in SSA, as compared with the Asian Green Revolution, through increased fertilizer use accompanied by improved fertilizer management.

Randomized Controlled Trial CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION GREEN REVOLUTION FERTILIZERS GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Economics of crop residue management

Vijesh Krishna Maxwell Mkondiwa (2023, [Artículo])

More than five billion metric tons of agricultural residues are produced annually worldwide. Despite having multiple uses and significant potential to augment crop and livestock production, a large share of crop residues is burned, especially in Asian countries. This unsustainable practice causes tremendous air pollution and health hazards while restricting soil nutrient recycling. In this review, we examine the economic rationale for unsustainable residue management. The sustainability of residue utilization is determined by several economic factors, such as local demand for and quantity of residue production, development and dissemination of technologies to absorb excess residue, and market and policy instruments to internalize the social costs of residue burning. The intervention strategy to ensure sustainable residue management depends on public awareness of the private and societal costs of open residue burning.

Crop Biomass Residue Burning Environmental Effects CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CROPS BIOMASS RESIDUES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT CLIMATE CHANGE SMALLHOLDERS TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION

Implementation new tools and technologies in the GMP Africa Breeding Pipelines

Yoseph Beyene (2023, [Objeto de congreso])

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA NEW TECHNOLOGY BREEDING PIPES GERMPLASM PHENOTYPING

Teacher training in the state of Chihuahua: Between the health challenge and teacher resilience

Evangelina Cervantes Holguín Pavel Roel Gutiérrez Sandoval Cely Celene Ronquillo Chávez (2023, [Artículo, Artículo])

The article proposes to recover the response of the Teacher Training and Updating Institutions in the state of Chihuahua regarding the various challenges imposed by the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). The qualitative exercise analyzes the experience of 10 institutions based on the voice of their students, teachers, and principals regarding changes in academic, administrative, and organizational processes. It is concluded that the pandemic has affected each institution in different ways and with diverse intensity. Despite the achievements, the experience analyzed reveals the relative success of the using virtual platforms in the face of three basic conditions: connectivity, technological competencies, and socio-emotional skills of the teaching staff. It highlights the importance of implementing tutoring, resilience, or awareness actions of teachers and students' needs, feelings, and sufferings. It is opportune to recover the experiences of other institutions and to question especially students, thesis students and graduates.

Acceso a la educación Aprendizaje en línea Educación a distancia Formación de docentes Tecnología educacional HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LA CONDUCTA HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LA CONDUCTA Access to education online learning distance education teacher education educational technology

The generation challenge programme platform: Semantic standards and workbench for crop science

Richard Bruskiewich Guy Davenport Mathieu Rouard Reinhard Simon Samart Wanchana Trushar Shah Victor Jun Ulat Andrew Farmer Pankaj Jaiswal Mark Wilkinson David Marshall Alyssa Collins (2008, [Artículo])

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CROP IMPROVEMENT GENETIC RESOURCES PLANT BREEDING BIODIVERSITY COMPUTER APPLICATIONS DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY DATA PROCESSING

Risk aversion, impatience, and adoption of conservation agriculture practices among smallholders in Zambia

Hambulo Ngoma João Vasco Silva Frédéric Baudron Isaiah Nyagumbo Christian Thierfelder (2024, [Artículo])

Sustainable agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture have been promoted in southern Africa for nearly three decades, but their adoption remains low. It is of policy interest to unpack behavioural drivers of adoption to understand why adoption remains lower than anticipated. This paper assesses the effects of risk aversion and impatience on the extent and intensity of the adoption of conservation agriculture using panel data collected from 646 households in 2021 and 2022 in Zambia. We find that 12% and 18% of the smallholders were impatient and risk averse, respectively. There are two main empirical findings based on panel data Probit and Tobit models. First, on the extensive margin, being impatient is correlated with a decreased likelihood of adopting combined minimum-tillage (MT) and rotation by 2.9 percentage points and being risk averse is associated with a decreased propensity of adopting combined minimum tillage (MT) and mulching by 3.2 percentage points. Being risk averse is correlated with a decreased chance of adopting basins by 2.8 percentage points. Second, on the intensive margin, impatience and risk aversion are significantly correlated with reduced adoption intensity of basins, ripping, minimum tillage (MT), and combined MT and rotation by 0.02–0.22 ha. These findings imply a need to embed risk management (e.g., through crop yield insurance) in the scaling of sustainable agricultural practices to incentivise adoption. This can help to nudge initial adoption and to protect farmers from yield penalties that are common in experimentation stages.

Risk and Time Preferences CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION RISK SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION SMALLHOLDERS

Optimización del proceso de estampado en la empresa Rivian: aplicación del método SMED

Diego Rodríguez Arroyo Luis Alberto Cáceres Díaz ISABEL PEREYRA LAGUNA (2023, [Artículo])

En la era actual, la industria automotriz se encuentra en un estado de transformación constante, impulsado principalmente por la rápida integración de tecnologías emergentes. Aquellas empresas que logran destacar son las que no sólo innovan en diseño y funcionalidad, sino también en la eficiencia productiva. Rivian, una prominente empresa estadounidense especializada en vehículos eléctricos destaca por sus audaces diseños y su compromiso con la sostenibilidad. No obstante, al adentrarse en el funcionamiento interno de sus plantas de producción, surgen ciertos desafíos. En particular, en las instalaciones de la planta de Rivian, se ha detectado que el proceso de estampado, esencial para modelar las piezas de acero de sus vehículos, representa un cuello de botella con gran área de oportunidad que requiere una pronta intervención debido al tiempo muerto que impacta a la producción, entre éstas, la alimentación del material a la prensa de estampado, donde actualmente existen muchas actividades manuales que ocasionan tiempo extra de operación, el cual se puede reducir mediante la automatización de algunas operaciones. En este artículo, se presenta un desarrollo detallado sobre la implementación y optimización del proceso en una prensa de estampado, utilizando la metodología intercambio de troqueles en un solo minuto (SMED por sus siglas en inglés) para maximizar y mejorar la eficiencia de los recursos y satisfacer la demanda de producción. A través de esta herramienta de Manufactura Esbelta, se aplican sistemáticamente las etapas y ciclos del SMED con el objetivo de realizar el cambio de modelo en una maquina en un tiempo objetivo de 12 minutos. Este trabajo de investigación describe una serie de desafíos y las soluciones implementadas en diferentes estaciones de la prensa, buscando incrementar su eficiencia y minimizar los riesgos para los operadores. Además, se enfoca en reducir el material defectuoso producido en la prensa, lo que contribuye a un aumento en la calidad y una disminución en los costos por unidad. Esto tuvo como resultado ahorros de miles de dólares en costos variables de la prensa.

In the current era, the automotive industry is in a state of constant transformation, caused primarily by the rapid integration of emerging technologies. Those companies that can stand out are those that not only innovate in design and functionality but also productive efficiency. Rivian, a prominent American company specializing in electric vehicles, is known for its bold designs and commitment to sustainability. However, when delving into the inner workings of your production plants, certain challenges arise. At the Rivian plant facilities, it has been detected that the stamping process, essential for modeling the steel parts of its vehicles, represents a bottleneck in the process with a large area of opportunity that requires prompt intervention due to high downtime in the press line that impacts production, specifically in the setting of material, there are a lot of manual operations that cause a lot of overtime that can be reduced with automated processes. In this article, a detailed development on the implementation and optimization of the process in a stamping press is presented, using the SMED methodology (Single Minute Exchange Die) to maximize and improve resource efficiency and meet production demand. Through this Lean Manufacturing tool, the stages, and cycles of the SMED are systematically applied to carry out the model change in a machine in a target time of 12 minutes. This research work describes a series of challenges and solutions implemented in different press stations, seeking to increase their efficiency and minimize the risks for operators. Additionally, it focuses on reducing defective material produced on the press, which contributes to an increase in quality and a decrease in unit costs. This resulted in savings of thousands of dollars in variable press costs.

El primer autor agradece el apoyo de CIATEQ y de la empresa y grupo de trabajo en Rivian, que con todo el análisis de datos y la instalación de las diversas mejoras siempre hubo el apoyo y la comunicación correcta como equipo de trabajo. Además de agradecer el gran apoyo del asesor el Dr. Luis Cáceres y la Dra. Isabel Pereyra por su constante retroalimentación y el fuerte apoyo durante estos meses de trabajo en este artículo sobre SMED, mejorando en el análisis y representación de datos ya que con los conocimientos y la experiencia de ambos se facilitó la realización y culminación de este proyecto. De igual manera los autores agradecen a la Revista Politécnica de Aguascalientes por permitir la publicación de este artículo.

Cambio de modelo SMED Automatización Optimización Technology stamping Automation SMED INGENIERÍA Y TECNOLOGÍA CIENCIAS TECNOLÓGICAS OTRAS ESPECIALIDADES TECNOLÓGICAS OTRAS OTRAS