Originally published in 1987, this book is written primarily for planners, public administrators and project managers in countries or international agencies considering a development strategy in which agribusiness and rural enterprise projects are viewed as a desirable policy instrument for generating employment and income. It makes available the background and methodology of project analysis so that agribusiness and rural enterprise project can be designed, implemented and reviewed effectively in a wide range of circumstances. It outlines how to establish objectively the potential and limitations of agribusiness and rural enterprise projects; provides guidelines for deciding whether a project can be effective; considers the policy issues relating to such projects and suggests techniques for judging project performance.
Management research has shown successful farmers have quite distinct personal characteristics which most farmers have seldom thought about. Farmers who are less successful tend to have processes and systems which are likely to be biased. The aim of this book is to help all farmers discover more about these personal attributes that impinge on the success of their management, and to show how their attitudes and personal resources can be improved. This book is not a straightforward textbook. Rather, it tells the story of a group of farmers who take part in an expert-guided experiment designed to test approaches to improving management skill. The group meet at each other's farms to learn about their issues and develop solutions to improving what is called their 'management style' with the aim of removing any identified decision system biases. The book covers issues like optimal decision rule systems and how they can become second nature.
Robert Bloomfield’s The Farmer’s Boy was the most successful poem of the “Romantic” period, selling 100,000 copies between 1800 and 1830. However, what was marketed was not the poem which the working-class Bloomfield had written, but a highly polished, politely spelled and punctuated re-write, prepared by the local squire, who deliberately covered up the fact that Bloomfield had written originally for a Suffolk voice, with Suffolk vowel-sounds and Suffolk idioms. This edition prints Bloomfield’s first manuscript, and then has a parallel text of the “polished” first edition, opposite Bloomfield’s second manuscript, made for his own use and for that of his family, in which he changes the poem back to the form in which he wrote, heard, and read it. Thus Bloomfield’s intentions appear for the first time, edited in detail from the original manuscripts at Harvard. Also included are the two eighteenth-century poems The Thresher’s Labour by Stephen Duck, and The Woman’s Labour by Mary Collier.
Successful farm management is based upon excellent decision making by the farm owner. In practice most decisions are made intuitively rather than the result of careful data collection and analysis, or analysing others' views and associated factors. Thus the farmer's intuitive decisions have a major impact on the business practices, efficiency, profitability and success of the farm. In the form of a character driven novel the author guides the reader through a series of lessons for farmers to improve their intuitive decision making. The story follows Ben, a New Zealand farmer, as an important member of a discussion group. The experimental programme is set up by a management researcher, Tom, to explore the best way to improve farmers' intuition. The farmer group has different characters in different situations each one of which leads to interesting dilemmas and lessons. Each chapter addresses a different issue affecting farmers, such as risk management, benchmarking, budgeting and planning, negotiation skills, active listening and farm ownership. By the end of the novel the reader will have absorbed important farm management principles and practices through the activities and findings of the group. The Intuitive Farmer follows on from successful business management books such as The Goal, which communicate business ideas and strategies in novel form. This is the first such book applied to agricultural management practices, providing a dependable source for farmers, agricultural and farm management students and people involved in agriculture industries. 5m Books
This title aims to provide introductory and concluding surveys of the subject of farms, trees and farmers. Two central parts explore trends in farmer tree-growing and the factors which influence decision-making. Eight case studies cover, among other topics, the need for tree products, market access, the allocation of land and labour, and exposure to risk. In showing why farmers decide to grow or not grow trees, it seeks to increase the reader's knowledge about farming systems and to provide a guide to encouraging farm forestry throughout the world.
Previous biographies of American actress Frances Farmer (1913-1970) have downplayed her professional achievements to emphasize her turbulent personal life, including several police arrests and repeated confinements in a state mental hospital. By focusing upon her acting career, this book endeavors to restore her position as a significant Hollywood player of the 1930s, '40s and '50s. An analysis of her film, radio and television work is offered, as well as assessments of the three Frances Farmer biopics and the documentaries in which she is featured. Each of her 16 films receives a chapter-length discussion. A very lengthy biographical chapter is included.
A wide-ranging and accessible introduction to the origins and histories of the first agricultural populations in many different parts of the world This fully revised and updated second edition of First Farmers examines the origins of food production across the world and documents the expansions of agricultural populations from source regions during the past 12,000 years. It commences with the archaeological records from the multiple homelands of agriculture, and extends into discussions that draw on linguistic and genomic information about the human past, featuring new findings from the last ten years of research. Through twelve chapters, the text examines the latest evidence and leading theories surrounding the early development of agricultural practices through data drawn from across the anthropological discipline—primarily archaeology, comparative linguistics, and biological anthropology—to present a cohesive history of early farmer migration. Founded on the author's insights from his research into the agricultural prehistory of East and Southeast Asia—one of the best focus areas for the teaching of prehistoric archaeology—this book offers an engaging account of how prehistoric humans settled new landscapes. The second edition has been thoroughly updated with many new maps and illustrations that reflect the multidisciplinary knowledge of the present day. Authored by a leading scholar with wide-ranging experience across the fields of anthropology and archaeology, First Farmers, Second Edition includes information on: The early farming dispersal hypothesis in current perspective, plus operational considerations regarding the origins and dispersals of agriculture The archaeological evidence for the origins and spreads of agriculture in the Eurasian, African and American continents The histories of the language families that spread with the first farming populations, and the evidence from biological anthropology and ancient DNA that underpins our modern knowledge of these migrations Drawing evidence from across the sub-disciplines of anthropology to present a cohesive and exciting analysis of an important subject in the study of human population history, Farmers First, Second Edition is an important work of scholarship and an excellent introduction to multiple methods of anthropological and archaeological inquiry for the beginner student in prehistoric anthropology and archaeology, human migration, archaeology of East and Southeast Asia, agricultural history, comparative anthropology, and more disciplines across the anthropology curriculum.
This book takes a surprising look at the hidden world of broccoli, connecting American consumers concerned about their health and diet with Maya farmers concerned about holding onto their land and making a living. Compelling life stories and rich descriptions from ethnographic fieldwork among supermarket shoppers in Nashville, Tennessee and Maya farmers in highland Guatemala bring the commodity chain of this seemingly mundane product to life. For affluent Americans, broccoli fits into everyday concerns about eating right, being healthy, staying in shape, and valuing natural foods. For Maya farmers, this new export crop provides an opportunity to make a little extra money in difficult, often risky circumstances. Unbeknownst to each other, the American consumer and the Maya farmer are bound together in webs of desire and material production.
Farmers face ever-changing production systems, markets and regulations. This means they must constantly review their long-term plans to ensure continuing economic and environmental sustainability. The challenge for the future is for farmers to assess opportunities strategically as they appear and overcome the temptation of just meeting the demand of day-to-day tactical decision-making. This long-term view is the world of strategic planning. This book explains how to be a "strategic farmer" in an unusual way. Rather like a novel, it tells the story of a newly reconstituted farming couple who are searching for a new property on which to carry out their primary production plans following their departure from a family farm which was being assigned to the next generation. In a previous book in this series (Farm Business Management: The Decisive Farmer), this same couple were involved in a team approach to improving decision-making. This book is a valuable resource for all farmers and students of farm management and agribusiness.
First Farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies offers readers an understanding of the origins and histories of early agricultural populations in all parts of the world. Uses data from archaeology, comparative linguistics, and biological anthropology to cover developments over the past 12,000 years Examines the reasons for the multiple primary origins of agriculture Focuses on agricultural origins in and dispersals out of the Middle East, central Africa, China, New Guinea, Mesoamerica and the northern Andes Covers the origins and dispersals of major language families such as Indo-European, Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan, Niger-Congo and Uto-Aztecan
The underlying economic factors that affect primary production are frequently studied and written about - soil quality, animal health, climate, machinery - but this is the first book to explore the role of the decision psychology of the manager running the farm business, the person responsible for staff, strategic and operational decisions and the success or failure of financial and other objective outcomes. This second edition addresses fundamental questions such as the process of decision making, personal skills, and methods to improve managerial ability. It is an essential reference for farm managers and students in farm economics and management. Key Features: This is the first farm business management book published worldwide focused on human factors and decision making in primary production The second edition introduces two new chapters covering the key decision method, intuition and its enhancement, and the importance of human characteristics in a range of decision topics and areas
This book brings to life one of the most creative (and necessary) human endeavors and makes understandable the incredible complexity of California agriculture, one of the world's most daring experiments in feeding itself. A valuable resource that should be read by everyone—not just those of us who farm, but all of us who depend on farms."—Michael Ableman, farmer, photographer, and author of From the Good Earth, On Good Land, and Fields of Plenty. "No understanding of this state is possible without an understanding of its agriculture; that's how important this subject is."—Gerald Haslam, author of Workin' Man Blues: Country Music in California "A fascinating, intriguing, and sometimes even humorous exploration of California's agriculture, from broccoli to marijuana and beyond. At long last, a book everyday people can read to understand the state's biggest industry."—Louis Warren, University of California, Davis
Farming is a complex job with many unique challenges, but can also be a rich and rewarding career that is full of opportunities. Following the author's Farm Business Management series, this new textbook takes the core principles and techniques and distils them into an accessible student resource. Written by an expert with decades of teaching and research experience around the world, this book also incorporates two brand new chapters on farm accounting and computer systems and software. Providing a hands-on learning experience for students of agriculture, it will continue to be a much-used resource throughout their farming career.
One day in the middle of a brutal Michigan winter, retired farmer Les Fields is found half-frozen in his barn. He is naked, smeared with animal blood, and raving that Christ appeared to him. He claims God wants a statue made for the church of Saint Cecelia's in the struggling farming community of Decker. Has Jesus really appeared to the troubled farmer? Or has Les simply slipped into madness? The parishioners of Saint Cecelia's must decide. How It Is With Miracles is a powerful story about the nature of faith, told from the perspectives of the three men at the center of the controversy, the troubled farmer, an aged priest and a young artist. As Les's neighbor one day points out to Father Greg, "You know how it is with miracles, Father. Sometimes they're in the eye of the beholder." You too must decide. But miraculous or not, events in Decker that winter and spring profoundly change the lives of the people involved.
Robert Bloomfield’s The Farmer’s Boy was the most successful poem of the “Romantic” period, selling 100,000 copies between 1800 and 1830. However, what was marketed was not the poem which the working-class Bloomfield had written, but a highly polished, politely spelled and punctuated re-write, prepared by the local squire, who deliberately covered up the fact that Bloomfield had written originally for a Suffolk voice, with Suffolk vowel-sounds and Suffolk idioms. This edition prints Bloomfield’s first manuscript, and then has a parallel text of the “polished” first edition, opposite Bloomfield’s second manuscript, made for his own use and for that of his family, in which he changes the poem back to the form in which he wrote, heard, and read it. Thus Bloomfield’s intentions appear for the first time, edited in detail from the original manuscripts at Harvard. Also included are the two eighteenth-century poems The Thresher’s Labour by Stephen Duck, and The Woman’s Labour by Mary Collier.
Advances in simulation technology have enabled an interesting amount of training and instruction to be conducted on training simulators instead of on real systems. However, experiences with the procurement and use of training simulators has not always been as successful, often owing to a lack of knowledge of didactics and of training programme development, and also to inadequate simulator specifications. The Handbook of Simulator-based Training represents the first comprehensive overview of the European state of the art in simulator-based training. It also comprises a well-founded and systematic approach to simulator-based training and the specification of simulator requirements. The multi-disciplinary research project described in this book combines the expertise of specialists in human factors, information systems, system design and engineering from 23 research and industrial organizations from five countries - France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK. The authors have synthesized and documented the project results to ensure that this handbook provides not only many valuable guidelines, but more importantly a common frame of reference. It will be a key resource for the many specialists who are concerned with simulator-based training: researchers, engineers, and users; military training institutes and training system development departments; military staff responsible for the procurement of training devices and simulators; the simulator industry; the training research community; and the human factors and ergonomics community.
This book discusses the methods to determine optimal systems in farm business management. The methods are all about problem solving, as any decision situation implies choice and, therefore, requires a method for deciding which alternative maximizes the objectives. The book is not, however, about carrying out the optimal plans. Most of the chapters relate to quantitative methods and qualitative analysis. The book has a penultimate chapter discussing a number of analytical models that are commonly used in urban business but which are less important in primary production. The results of farming systems analyses can have a major impact on good decision-making in any primary producing community. Some of the methods might be used by farmers themselves, but more likely by farm advisors and consultants, and by farm management researchers interested in, firstly, providing farmers with guidance on optimal systems, and, secondly, providing governments with advice on the impact of farm policy measures.
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