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The paper aims to explore consumer preferences for novel and other quality attributes in processed foods. It focuses on preferences for product origin, certification on food quality and standards and tradeoffs between novelty (fortification and highly processed) and other quality attributes.

In total, 317 consumers were randomly selected at a high-end supermarket and a traditional local market in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Stated and revealed preference approaches were used to investigate their preferences for different attributes in processed foods. A hypothetical choice experiment was used to assess consumer preference for six baby food attributes and the tradeoffs between the attributes, while the revealed preference method included questions on consumer's actual processed food purchasing and consumption habits. In addition, consumers were asked a series of hierarchical questions assessing the motivation underpinning their choices for different products attributes.

When making choices for processed food attributes, consumers are reluctant to choose novel technologies and have a strong preference for natural, nutritious, tasty and quality processed food attributes. However, they are willing to forego their preference for naturalness and to overcome their reluctance to trying novel technologies when the novelty is embedded with such quality benefits as nutrition, but not so when the embedded benefit is convenience. They are also willing to trade off their preference for nutrition for a sensory taste. This suggests that micronutrient deficiencies can be reduced among women and children under five by employing the appropriate strategies in processed food formulation. Further, the preference for product origin highlights the opportunity for national brands to fill the gap created by the increasing demand for processed foods in Tanzania.

The study claims a developing country perspective but is only representing consumers in one city in a developing country. However, this study speculates that consumers with representative characteristics in such context are likely to behave the same. Furthermore, although this study controlled for a hypothetical bias, having a hypothetical choice experiment with non-shoppers (non-purchasers) could have triggered the hypothetical bias, making participants concentrate more on non-price than price attributes.

The paper offers a developing country perspective on consumers' preferences for novelty in processed foods and tradeoffs with other quality attributes.

The paper aims to examine impact of adopted maize seed technology on farm profitability. It assesses both the revenue and cost implication of the adopted technology on farmers' welfare. The study aims to expand the domain of farm investment assessment analysis by including a broader range of production outcome indicators than is normally found in the adoption impact on farm profitability literature.

The paper opted for an empirical study using field survey data. A structured questionnaire was used to interview 400 maize farmers across four regions of Ghana. The survey was complemented with focus group discussions in each region with participants representing male and female farmers cultivating maize on a commercial basis. The data captured detail household level (i.e. demographic and socioeconomic characteristics) as well as farm-level information on maize production (i.e. input use and farm output).

The paper provides empirical insights about maize farmers' perception on the adopted maize seed technology and the factors influencing adoption. It also shed light on the fact that maize farmers do not base their adoption decisions solely on farm output and revenue indicators alone, but mainly on the return on their investment and the cost associated with the maize seed technology adopted.

Because of data limitation, the influence of some important actors (market power) could not be directly captured in the analysis; this may lead to over simplification of a very complex situation in the maize sector. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to future investigate the influence of such important phenomenon on farm profitability.

Improving maize productivity and farm profitability across the sectors is important in order to improve farmer income. This study, therefore, highlights the effect of adopted seed technology and its impact on farm profitability.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how investment cost in maize seed technology affect farm profitability.

The paper structures the life cycle of issues, thus allowing a systematic discussion of their practical aspects. It is designed to help public relations professionals handle issues by providing them with parameters that can be influenced systematically. The authors differentiate between four different phases in the life cycle of an issue: emergence, dissemination, establishment and erosion. These phases reflect the different degrees to which an issue penetrates society. An issue emerges when a ‘crystallisation’ and certain interpretation of a specific social reality comes out. Dissemination comes up when protagonists pick up the issue and disseminate it. The issue is established when it becomes known to a large part of society. And it undergoes erosion when public interest in the issue stagnates. In each of the four phases intermediary groups and media are involved in different ways and to different degrees. The issue's factual structure, ie the degree of complexity, is also different in each phase. Public relations professionals can systematically influence the different parameters in each phase of the issue: by doing this they gain improved control of the issues.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential causes of the reduction of cotton cultivation in Shandong Province of China from the perspective of smallholders and notably examine the role of off-farm employment.

This paper extends an integrated behavioral model to analyze the relationship between off-farm employment and cotton cultivation by taking into account farmers’ risk attitudes. A household survey data of 144 Bt cotton farmers in six villages in Linqing County, Shandong Province conducted in 2012 and 2013 is used. A simultaneous equations model is established and further estimated by using three-stage least squares method.

Although the introduction of Bt cotton has promoted the increase in cotton acreage in China from 1999 to 2007, the planting area of cotton has been decreasing since 2007. The results show the significant correlations among risk attitude, off-farm employment, and cotton cultivation. The planting area of cotton is positively correlated with farmers’ willingness to take risk but negatively associated with off-farm employment of family members. The findings imply that the rapid emergence of off-farm labor markets is a major reason for the reduction of cotton acreage in Shandong Province. In the context of the more opportunities of off-farm employment in China, cotton acreage is expected to decrease further.

The findings provide a reasonable explanation for the reduction of cotton cultivation in Shandong. This analysis contributes to a better understanding of the relationships among individual risk attitude, off-farm employment, and agricultural behavior, thereby adding to the literature about the application of the integrated behavioral model.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the adoption decision of farmers and observe the factors that affect the adoption decision of sustainable agriculture practices (SAP) which is the major motivating force of Malaysian economy. The idea behind this study is to transfer knowledge to paddy farmers within regional areas of Malaysia and to comprehend their understanding of social innovation and sustainable agriculture engineering and their overall significance. The outcome of this research will suggest a strategic extensive plan to encourage the use of SAP and also help to develop SAP helping toward building a sustainable society.

This paper encompasses three phases: analyzing the process of SAP among Malaysian Paddy farmers, to agricultural industrialization, until the stage of SAP led by farmer’s co-operatives, discussing the relevant practice together with literature and historically evidencing that there is no better way to promote SAP among regional paddy farmers within Malaysia.

Initial objective of this paper is to establish a thoughtful approach to enable the society to bridge a gap between embracing sustainability. The second objective investigates the misconception among farmers about social innovation. Furthermore, the study builds the conceptual framework and examines the relationship among the relevant constructs, this framework is critically examining the literature within paddy farming context. Harmoniously, there has been limited empirical research performed on the decision of adoption toward SAP usage among paddy farmers in Malaysia.

The clear worth of this research paper is the illustration from past reviews and practices to endorse SAP usage among paddy farmers in Malaysia. Another literature review suggests that these countermeasures comprehensively, historically, and theoretically are proven result oriented. The information about SAP will be beneficial for farmers and policy maker who are interested in the advancement. This learning delivers a comparative summary of knowledge transfer influencing farmer’s intention and behavior of sustainable agriculture engineering to adopt green technology. In a future study, these construct will be empirically tested.

The increased awareness of global environmental threats like climate change has created an upsurge of interest in low embodied carbon building materials for green building delivery. Though the literature advocates for the use of hemp-based building materials, there is no evidence of studies to explore its potential use in Ghana. Therefore, this study explores the potential factors that limit the adoption of hemp as an alternative sustainable material for green building delivery in Ghana.

A structured questionnaire was used to solicit the views of built environment professionals operating in construction, consulting and developer firms. The questions were developed through a comparative review of the related literature and complemented with a pilot review. Data were analysed via descriptive and inferential statistics.

On the average, the majority of the respondents showed a moderate level of awareness of hemp and its related uses in the construction industry. Also, certain key factors like the perceived association of hemp with marijuana, lack of expertise in the production of hemp-related building materials, farmers not getting the needed clearance for the cultivation of hemp, lack of legislation by the government in the legalisation of hemp and the inadequate knowledge of consumers on the benefits of hemp-based building materials were identified as potential limitations to the adoption of hemp as an alternative sustainable material for green building delivery.

The findings from this study provide insights into a less investigated area in sub-Saharan Africa and further provide new and additional information to the current state-of-the-art on the potential for the use of hemp in the building construction sector.

Efforts to increase sustainability are increasingly being promulgated using non-state forms of governance. Currently, there are multiple multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) working to develop sustainability standards and metrics for US agriculture. These include: LEO-4000, Field to Market, and the Sustainability Consortium. Using Paul Thompson’s (2010) tripartite sustainability framework, the proposed sustainability standards and metrics of the three MSIs are assessed. Our findings indicate that the current political economic stakeholder nexus is producing incremental adjustments to the status quo of industrial agriculture. Put differently, the standards and metrics being produced by these initiatives are largely advancing programs of sustainable intensification in which sustainability is equated with increasing resource efficiencies. Hence, our research problematizes the efficacy of non-state governance approaches for transformative change in food and agriculture. The findings in this chapter are based on fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2013.

Multi-stakeholder initiatives have proliferated as a leading form of standard-development, as they are understood to be more legitimate than other forms of non-state governance. The legitimacy of multi-stakeholder initiatives is a result of their perceived congruence with normative democratic principles. Using a case study of a multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a National Sustainable Agriculture Standard (LEO-4000) for the United States, this chapter examines the practices and politics of legitimation in non-state governance. The analysis of LEO-4000 indicates that, first, the simultaneous construction of legitimacy and standards affects the kinds of standards developed. Second, understandings of legitimacy are influenced by the standpoint of actors. Third, legitimacy has become a strategic dimension of standard-development, which actors use to further their interests. Based on these findings, we contend that non-state governance that relies on normative democratic principles for legitimation is constrained in its ability to develop stringent standards. Thus, there may be limits to non-state governance as a regulatory tool, and to achieve non-economic objectives such as increased sustainability. For rural areas, the implication is that they are becoming enmeshed in an emerging system of non-state governance that continues to be highly contested, particularly regarding who has the right to govern such areas. The findings in this chapter are based on qualitative data, including 34 interviews and participant-observation.