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Malting barley is an important specialty crop in the Northern Plains and growers mitigate risk with federally subsidized crop insurance and production contracts. The purpose of this paper is to quantify risks growers face due to “coverage gaps” in crop insurance that result in uncertain indemnity payments when their crop does not meet contract specifications.

A stochastic dominance model is developed to evaluate alternative strategies for growers with differing risk attitudes and production practices (irrigation vs dryland).

The results illustrate how alternative crop insurance provisions affect efficient choice sets for growers. Risk premiums for irrigated growers all point to valuations favoring more coverage, contracts, and malting option B. As the crop insurance industry matures in the functions it performs, it will become increasingly more important to address quality attributes.

This paper addresses quality issues and coverage gaps in crop insurance provisions.

To contribute to the economic understanding of alternative food‐grain policy options for Morocco, examines the fiscal implications of instituting, in addition to the current soft wheat subsidy, a consumer and producer subsidy in the related markets of hard wheat and barley. Subsidizing the two related markets has been suggested by some economists as a possible means of alleviating the subsidy burden through shifting supply and demand in the soft wheat market. The analysis shows that the additional subsidies will not alleviate the problem.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of water harvesting techniques as a sustainability measure of the cropping system for barley production in the Fa'a farming area located in the Northern part of Jordan.

Usually, the farmers plant barley to feed their animals. The climate of the area is semi‐arid to arid. Annual average rainfall in the area is not enough for the survival of barley and farmers are usually grassing barley instead of harvesting. Overgrazing and mismanagement contribute to land degradation in the area, which affect the production system in the area.

The paper investigates the runoff collection system which is framed with two different sizes in three different land uses: cultivated with barley; fallow and rangeland. Data are collected in all of five stormy events. The total soil sediment is measured for these land uses. The amount of water collected from runoff is also measured for the same areas. The ploughing against the slope with planting barley can reduce the runoff and soil sediment increasing soil moisture and reducing soil erosion. The barley production as biomass is highest using strip cropping as opposed to zero ratio control site or conventional cultivation. The plants' lengths were also higher in strip cropping ranging between 26 and 28 centimetres in the different strip cropping ratios compared to 23 centimetres in the conventional cropping system.

By using the results from this new research to such an area, surface runoff from the uncultivated land can be used to supplement the rainfall to the cultivated land. This increases the share of runoff on the cultivated land to the degree where barley can be harvested.

Due to the low crop insurance participation by grain growers in the Pacific Northwest, the performance of insurance programs and the futures market is assessed in this area. Revenue insurance, combined with the futures and government programs, is identified as the optimal risk management portfolio. Although yield risk level, decision maker’s risk preference, and actuarial fairness of premiums can all affect farmers’ choices, the current subsidy policy is most influential. The varying subsidy levels induce farmers’ subsidy‐seeking incentive and suppress the risk‐reducing incentive. There is little diversification effect from growing two crops in the rotation instead of one.

In The Changing Body (Cambridge University Press and NBER, 2011), we presented a series of estimates showing the number of calories available for human consumption in England and Wales at various points in time between 1700 and 1909/1913. We now seek to correct an error in our original figures and to compare the corrected figures with those published by a range of other authors. We also include new estimates showing the calorific value of meat and grains imported from Ireland. Disagreements with other authors reflect differences over a number of issues, including the amount of land under cultivation, the extraction and wastage rates for cereals and pulses and the number of animals supplying meat and dairy products. We consider recent attempts to achieve a compromise between these estimates and challenge claims that there was a dramatic reduction in either food availability or the average height of birth cohorts in the late-eighteenth century.

Keeping in view the diabetes status that has affected about 415 million people globally and is the leading cause of death in many countries along with therising demand for low Glycemic Index (GI) foods, the purpose of this paper is to optimize the extrusion process for the development of low GI snacks from underutilized crops like water chestnut and barley.

The extrusion parameters (screw speed and barrel temperature), feed moisture and water chestnut flour, barley flour proportion, were varied and their effects on system and product responses (specific mechanical energy, water absorption index, water solubility index, bulk density, expansion ratio and breaking strength) were studied.

All the system and product responses were significantly affected by independent variables. Response surface and regression models were established to determine the responses as function of process variables. Models obtained were highly significant with high coefficient of determination (R²=0.88). The optimum processing conditions obtained by numerical optimization for the development of snacks were 90°C barrel temperature, 300 rpm screw speed, 14 per cent feed moisture and WCF-to-BF ratio as 90:10. Shelf life studies confirmed that the developed snacks can be safely stored in HDPE bags for a period of six months under ambient conditions.

Water chestnut and barley flour did not blend till date for extrusion cooking. Such snacks shall be a viable food option for diabetic people and can act as laxative due to high fibre and β-glucan content from barley.

The purpose of this paper was to test the extract of barley as an environmentally friendly inhibitor for the acid corrosion of steel due to its wide availability as a popular major crop and its richness with different chemical constituents reported in literature (40) like alanine, glycine, serine, aspartic acid, leucine, valine, tyrosine and isoleucine with various number of functional groups that are able to chelate metal cations and to discuss the effect of temperature on its inhibition efficiency.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and polarization measurements were carried out using frequency response analyzer Gill AC instrument. The frequency range for EIS measurements was 0.1 ≤ f ≤ 1 × 103 with an applied potential signal amplitude of 10 mV around the rest potential. Polarization measurements were carried out at a scan rate of 30 mV/min, utilizing a three-electrode cell. A platinum sheet and saturated calomel electrode were used as counter and reference electrodes, respectively. The working electrode was constructed with steel specimens that have the following composition (weight per cent): C, 0.21; S, 0.04; Mn, 2.5; P, 0.04; Si, 0.35; and balance Fe.

Barley extract could act as an effective corrosion inhibitor for the acid corrosion of steel. The inhibiting action of the barley extract was attributed to its adsorption over the metal surface that blocks the available cathodic and anodic sites. Adsorption isotherms indicated that the adsorbed extract molecules cover one active center over the metal surface.

The research included the first use of an important world crop as an effective corrosion inhibitor that can reduce the corrosion of steel to an extent of 94 per cent.

All research has the potential to affect people, ethnographers delve into the life of the every day of their participants, they walk their walk, talk their talk and strive for valid, in-depth contextualised data, gathered over a longitudinal and often intimate basis. Ethnography is explorative and inductive. It is messy, unpredictable and complex. Ethnography conducted with young people and children adds to the intricacy of managing ethically sound research practice within and beyond the field. In recent years, ethnographies with children, young people and families have become increasingly prominent, yet few scholars have written about conducting ethnographic research with children and young people (Albon & Barley, 2021; Levey, 2009; Mayeza, 2017). The ethnographer that works with children and young people needs to be aware that the power relationship between adults and children operates in complex and sometimes surprising ways and so needs to be ethically aware, ethically reactive and be prepared to be ethically challenged.

Throughout the world, there has been a dramatic increase in the demand for functional food products. Owing to the health benefits of barley, its utilization was explored for the development of β-glucan rich functional instant talbina (porridge). The present research was, therefore, undertaken with an aim to optimize the extrusion conditions for development of instant talbina premix and evaluate its functional and quality characteristics.

The independent variables i.e. barrel temperature (105–125°C) and feed moisture (12–20%) were studied to determine their influence on the system parameter i.e. specific mechanical energy and product characteristics i.e. bulk density, breaking strength, water absorption index, expansion ratio, water solubility index, L*, a* and b* by employing a central composite rotatable design.

All the quality parameters were significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by independent variables. The regression models obtained for all the responses showed higher coefficient of determination (R² = 0.99). The optimum extrusion conditions obtained by numerical optimization for development of extrudates used for making instant talbina were moisture content (12%) and barrel temperature (105°C). Various functional, pasting, complexing index and physicochemical properties of instant talbina were improved by the addition of honey and milk. The instant talbina prepared from barley flour with the addition of milk and honey showed increase in the β-glucan content, resistant starch, antioxidant activity and decrease in glycemic index with improved overall acceptability.

As far as we could possibly know that very limited or not many studies have been carried out wherein the possibility of developing instant talbina (porridge) have been carried out. As a result, the current study has a lot of potential for the food industry to manufacture β-glucan rich functional instant talbina with improved antioxidant characteristics and low glycemic index.

Sociologists have paid little attention to what people mean when they call themselves “professionals” in their everyday talk. Typically, when occupations lack the characteristics of self-control associated with the established professions, such talk is dismissed as desire for greater status. An ethnography of speaking conducted among several technicians’ occupations suggests that dismissing talk of professionalism may have been premature. The results of this study indicate that among technicians, professional talk highlights dynamics of respect, collaboration, and expertise crucial to the horizontal divisions of labor that are common in postindustrial workplaces, but have very little to do with the desire for occupational power.