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This paper demonstrates a multi-criteria analytic hierarchy process (AHP) framework for evaluating and benchmarking maintenance performance in the select agro-based industry.

Initially, 20 maintenance practices (criteria) have been identified after a detailed literature review and discussion with the agro-based industry (sugar, textile and dairy industry) executives. These are then grouped into six maintenance management areas referred to as group criteria. The multi-criteria methodology consists of three steps: criteria identification, hierarchical modeling and data collection and maintenance performance evaluation, and benchmarking. The multi-criteria methodology proposed in this work facilitates two ways of carrying out benchmarking: (1) within the agro-based industry and (2) between the agro-based industry. The methodology has been explained by taking a case example of 45 agro-based industries (18 dairy, 13 sugar and 14 textile) from the western region of India. The sensitivity analysis of the model has been performed to ascertain the robustness of the results.

There is a difference in the maintenance performance across the agro-based industries due to different maintenance practices perceived differently.

The outcome of the model is mainly given by the judgments of the agro-based industry executives. It is also sensitive to any change in the relative importance to the evaluation criteria or the perception about the maintenance performance.

The study contributes in identifying the weakness, if any, by comparing the agro-based industry under investigation with the benchmark factory at three levels, namely, overall performance (factory level), group criteria (maintenance management area level) and criteria (maintenance practice level) allowing further improvement.

The methodology assists in better decision-making and in improving maintenance performance.

The study examined the influence of environmental standards set by the SME agro-based processing firms and farmers' environmental empowerment on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices; and the mediating role of empowerment on the relationship between SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards and farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices.

Data was collected from purchasing managers of the agro-based processing firms. The SPSS software, SMART PLS and CB-SEM software were used to obtain results on the influence of environmental standards set by the SME agro-based processing firms on adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices; the influence of farmers' environmental empowerment on adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices and the mediating role of farmers' environmental empowerment on the relationship between SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards and farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices.

Findings indicated that SME agro-processing environmental standards have an influence on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Empowering farmers in environmental issues influenced their adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices. A partial mediation effect was observed on testing the mediating role of farmers' environmental empowerment on the relationship between SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards and farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly practices.

The study mainly focused on the upstream part of agricultural supply chains. The research has implications to decision-makers in government concerned with enhancing environmentally friendly practices among farmers in general.

The influence of SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices; the influence of farmers' environmental empowerment on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly practices; and the mediating role of farmers' environmental empowerment on the relationship between SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards and farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices are aspects that have not been given significant attention.

The modernization of the agro-based industry has encouraged the application of inorganic fertilizers to increase productivity. However, such fertilizer emissions may pose harmful environmental effects in the long run. This study aims to empirically explore the matter by applying the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the Indian agro-based industry.

The study builds two models considering nitrous oxide emission levels from inorganic (synthetic) and organic (manure) fertilizers to evaluate the safer option for the environment. The validity of an industry-specific EKC (IEKC) is tested for the models considering time series data from 1975 to 2019. Here, the autoregressive distributed lag model is applied for the 45 years long time series analysis to test the hypothesis with respect to inorganic and organic fertilizers emissions.

The existence of the IEKC is rejected by the inorganic fertilizer emissions model. Its U-shaped curve implies that applying such fertilizers will gradually cause degrading environmental effects. On the other hand, the organic fertilizer emissions model supports the existence of an inverted U-shaped IEKC. It proves that organic fertilizers are a better choice for safeguarding the environment in the long run.

Applying the EKC hypothesis on an industrial level can signify whether an industry worsens the environment in the long run. However, very few studies have explored such an application of the hypothesis in the past. Moreover, the literature could not find any previous study exploring the environmental effects of inorganic and organic fertilizers by analyzing the EKC hypothesis. The hypothesis can offer such insights with simplified empirical assessment.

Using firm-level data from small- to micro-sized agro-based enterprises located in developing Africa, the purpose of this paper is to employ a resource-based marketing model to explain financial and nonfinancial organizational performance outcomes. The moderating effect of firm size on the structural inter-linkages between customer retention orientation, eBrand promotion and the organizational performance outcomes is also explored.

Partial least squares path modeling approach was the analytical method for data analysis purposes.

The data support the assumption that marketing resources as well as the moderating influence of firm size play a strong role on the agro-based enterprise performance.

This study widens the context of inquiry on agro-based enterprise performance to include developing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The value of the paper rests in its intent to offer small- to micro-sized agro-based businesses in emerging markets more practical ways to enhance their performance.

To investigate the role of spent sulphite liquor (SSL) retained on neutral sulphite bagasse pulp in the binding action of phenolic resin, for the purpose of enhancing its performance to produce high quality agro‐based composite.

Pulps used in this work as agro‐based fibres were prepared from Asplund defibrator and neutral sulphite pulping processes. The performance of the resol resin in presence of SSL, were evaluated in terms of the effects of SSL constituents and using novolac as phenolic resin, in comparison with that prepared from pulps in absence of SSL and conventionally prepared resol – Asplund bagasse composites. Preparation of pulp free from sulphonyl groups and pre‐out‐precipitating the resol or lignosulphonic acid (LSA) on the strength and water resistance properties of the composite produced was also examined. The degraded hemicellulose and LSA in SSL were polynomial correlated with the changes in composites properties.

All neutral sulphite pulps investigated, in presence of SSL, were found to enhance the strength quality of agro‐based composite compared to commercially available resol‐agro‐based composite. The retained SSL on NS‐raw bagasse pulp could replace the Asplund bagasse pulp together with resol resin in production of agro‐composite. As well as, using neutral sulphite – Asplund bagasse pulp reduced the percent of added resol to half, to produce commercial resol agro‐based composite. The performance of the composite produced from novolac resin‐SSL‐neutral sulphite pulp and resol‐LSA‐neutral sulphite pulp exceeded 1.5 to 1.9 times the strength of commercially available composite.

Despite the SSL retained on pulp success in improving the strength property of the resol resin‐agro‐composites, but it has an undesirable effect on water resistance of the product. This problem was resolved by avoiding the undesirable effect of sulphonyl groups on pulp fibres as well as the degraded hemicellulose in SSL.

The approach developed provided a simple and practical solution to enhancing the performance of phenolic resin as well as agro‐fibres and SSL wastes in the production of high performance lignocellulosic composite.

The resol, together with SSL constituents retained on neutral sulphite pulp, are economic bonding agents for agro‐fibres and could be used in wood mills for production of medium density fibre‐board.

Given the potential of the stock market to provide required capital for agro-based companies, a time series analysis of the performance of major agricultural-based companies in the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE) was carried out.

Monthly records of volume of shares traded (VOL) as well as its determinants – current market price (CMP), dividend (DIV), earnings per share (EPS), price-earning ratio (PER), earning yield (EARN) and dividend yield (YIELD) were obtained from the NSE as indicators of performance through 11 years (1998-2008). Non-stationarity of the variables under consideration led to re-conceptualisation of the model as a vector autoregressive (VAR) system. Existence of more than one co-integrating vector in the data through the Johansen test, led to estimation of restricted VAR using the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) imposing normalisation of VOL and PER.

The result of the analysis revealed that VOL is positively related to YIELD and CMP while it is inversely related to EARN, EPS and DIV. On the other hand PER increases with increasing EPS and DIV but reduces with increase in EARN and CMP. Short-run adjustment coefficients were generally large ranging from four months to ten years.

However, variables coefficients were more elastic in the long run.

This paper is an original article and has not been done by any other researcher. Furthermore, this paper has not been submitted to any other publishing house prior to this.

The purpose of this paper is to prepare high-performance agro-based composites from the non-toxic rice bran-urea-formaldehyde (RB-UF) adhesive system. Investigations have continued for production high performance agro-based composites using environmentally acceptable approaches. The utilisation of such system with the available used local agro-based wood products (sugar-cane bagasse, SCB) adds economic value and helps reducing the environmental impact of commercial urea-formaldehyde (UF) adhesive, and most importantly, provides a potentially inexpensive alternative to the existing commercial artificial wood-panel mills.

Optimising the process for incorporating the RB in UF, as wood adhesive for binding the bagasse fibres, was carried out, by partially replacing commercial UF by denaturalised RB in slurry (wet) and dry form or through synthesis of UF. The denaturalisation of RB was carried out at different pHs (10-11) and at temperature 60°C for two hours. While incorporating the RB during synthesis of UF, it was carried out according to the method reported elsewhere. The formulation of adhesive components, pH value of the denaturalisation stage and the process of incorporating the RB were optimised. Assessment of the role of RB adhesive was specified from its free-formaldehyde (HCHO) content, as well as the properties (mechanical and physical properties) of the produced composites of bagasse particle board type, in comparison with the environmental impact of commercial thermosetting resin (UF).

The promising adhesive system exhibits improvement in the environmental performance (as E1 type) over a commercially UF adhesive (as E2 type), besides providing boards fulfill the requirements of grade H-3 (according to ANSI A208.1 (NPA1993). This adhesive system was resulted from replacing 30 per cent of UF by denalturalised RB (at pH 10) in slurry form. Where, its reduction in free-HCHO reached 53 per cent, as well as modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), internal bond (IB) and TS of the produced boards were approximately 24.2 N/mm2, approximately 3753 N/mm2, approximately 0.84 N/mm2 and approximately 11.4 per cent, respectively.

The eco-adhesive with relatively high percentage of low-cost commercial UF (70 per cent) and 30 per cent RB, as oil production by-product, in slurry form provides good board strength and is environmentally friendly compared to SCB-based composite properties, with that produced from commercial UF. The mechanical (MOR, MOE and IB) and water-resistance properties of the produced composite comply with the standard values.

The approach provided low HCHO-free UF adhesive with good comparative board strength and water resistance and reasonable working life. Replacing 30 per cent of UF by RB in slurry form and denaturalised at pH 10 is considered a promising inexpensive alternate adhesive (as E1) in the wood industry based on SCB wastes.

Incorporating the RB by-product of oil production to commercial UF will be beneficial for saving the health of wood co-workers and motivating the wood mill to export its wood products.

It provided a potentially simple way to improve both the utilisation of commercial UF and SCB as industrial substrates for particle-board production. This will benefit farmers, local wood mills in Upper Egypt, significantly. Meanwhile, incorporating low percentage of RB, as oil-mill by-products, is promising to partly replace UF resin in the wood industry, minimising formaldehyde emission or toxic gasses during board formation.

This paper aims to study the growth determinants of small-sized agro-based firms in the Indian agro-industry.

The stratified random sampling method was used to collect information from sample agro-firms. A structured pretested questionnaire was designed to collect required data. Descriptive statistics and multivariate technique were used to analyze the data.

The major determinants of firm growth were firm size, managerial networking intensity, skill development of employees, product diversification and market integration. Employee skill development was found to be a significant predictor of firm growth in slow-growing firms, but held as a weak predictor of growth in fast-growing firms; whereas, use of information technology was a significant growth predictor in fast-growing firms and an insignificant growth predictor in slow-growing firms. To attain growth, small-sized agro-based firms should move from a traditional product-focus strategy to a flexible market-focus strategy.

This study engaged a small sample size and focused only on the determinants of firm growth in the agro-industry, and mapped number of firm growth predictors. The implication of this study encourages more specific investigations with large samples, i.e. how each determinant influences firm growth in the agro-industry.

The study outcome would help agro-enterprises in designing strategies and aligning their current strategy with the desired strategy for firm growth.

Policy makers especially engaged in self-employment and enterprise development can use the study outcome for policy planning.

In recent years, the electronic and computer industry in India has developed and reached to an unexpected height. The agro-industry, in contrast, is still struggling due to its inherent weakness and external threats. The need of the hour is to expedite firm-level competitiveness, managerial excellence and business strategy for growth and survival. Therefore, the present study based on survey data adds value to the firm growth strategies in the agro-industry.

This paper aims to explore the intellectual structure shaping the circular economy (CE) discourse within the built environment in Africa.

The study adopted a bibliometric analysis approach to explore the intellectual structure of CE in the built environment in Africa. The authors collected 31 papers published between 2005 and 2021 from the Scopus database and used VOSviewer for data analysis.

The findings show that there are six clusters shaping the intellectual structure: demolition, material recovery and reuse; waste as a resource; cellulose and agro-based materials; resilience and low-carbon footprint; recycling materials; and the fourth industrial revolution. The two most cited scholars had three publications each, while the top journal was Resources, Conservation and Recycling. The dominant concepts included CE, sustainability, alternative materials, waste management, lifecycle, demolition and climate change. The study concludes that there is low CE research output in Africa, which implies that the concept is either novel or facing resistance.

The data were drawn from one database, Scopus; hence, adoption of alternative databases such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Dimensions could potentially have yielded a higher number of articles for analysis which potentially would result in different conclusions on the subject understudy.

This study made a significant contribution by articulating the CE intellectual structure in the built environment, identified prominent scholars and academic platforms responsible for promoting circularity in Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the argument linking land registration to agricultural investment and to provide theoretical reasons as to why this linkage may not materialise in Africa within the short to medium term.

The paper takes the form of a critical review of the relevant literature on land registration, access to credit and agricultural investment; arguments are built on empirical studies found in the literature and theoretical concepts.

It has been established in this paper that the links between landed property registration and agricultural investments are made defective in Africa by factors such as poverty, lack of appropriate agro‐based infrastructure and the fact that land registration per se does not improve the profitability of agriculture, neither does it improve access to credit.

The fact that this paper is based on literature review may be seen as a weakness to some extent.

Even though previous researchers have looked at the relationship between landed property registration and agricultural investment in the developing world, they fall short of critically explaining why land registration has been found not to enhance agricultural investment. This paper fills the gap through a combination of various theoretical and practical arguments which could call for a rethinking on the policies for promoting agricultural growth. The rigorous theoretical argument may also provide the basis for further empirical research.