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Strategic management (competitive strategy and supply chain management) and management accounting (product pricing and costing techniques).

Final year of business undergraduate programme and MBA programme.

This case illustrates how emergence of generic products had threatened the survival of DCPM and forced its management to urgently review the company's existing approach to pricing of its main herbicide product. The case presents opportunities for readers to discuss the deficiencies of DCPM's existing product costing approach and recommend modifications to meet the price and gross profit margin targets specified. It also highlights issues relating to supply chain management and human resource practices that might have to be improved to enhance DCPM's long-term competitiveness.

To understand the effects of globalisation and emergence of generic products on intensity of market competition for branded products. To identify deficiencies of the current product costing system of DCPM for pricing decision. To apply alternative contemporary approach to product costing and pricing of Metrix and the other value-added services. To identify measures to enhance supply chain management and inventory management in DCPM. To assess DCPM's human resources practices. To evaluate the effectiveness of DCPM's existing competitive strategy and formulate new competitive strategy to sustain DCPM's long-term competitiveness.

Teaching notes.

We present direct econometric tests of the induced innovation hypothesis. We test whether the price of herbicides relative to labor, machinery, and land, as well as research stocks, affects the direction of technological change and long-run substitution of herbicides for labor, machinery, and land, in U.S. agriculture. In the long run, a decrease in the price of herbicides relative to labor induces a strong labor-saving and herbicide-using bias in technological change. Public research induces labor-saving, machinery-saving, land-saving, and herbicide-using biases. Exogenous changes in scientific knowledge and/or spillovers from other sectors are labor and machinery saving and herbicide using.

In the UK, Japanese knotweed is an invasive, non‐native plant that has the potential to cause significant damage to buildings, foundations and development sites if left to establish. The plant's bamboo‐like stems can push their way through tarmac and expose weaknesses or cracks in concrete. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current problems caused by Japanese knotweed within the UK and to ascertain the extent to which the knotweed legislation provides clear enough guidelines and measures, and, if not, how this could be addressed.

A literature review and interviews have investigated the current and future eradication and control techniques available for Japanese knotweed. The primary and secondary research conducted has incorporated the views and opinions of experienced Japanese knotweed experts. Case studies of sites infested with knotweed have also been carried out.

The study has identified and recommended that both public and professional awareness of Japanese knotweed still needs to be increased, throughout the UK. A detailed identification card has therefore been produced as part of this study, in order to show the different growth stages of the invasive plant, throughout the year. The study has demonstrated that an eradication technique must be carefully chosen and tailored to suit each infested site after a full site survey. The semi‐structured interviews have established that the current legislation, guidance notes and also the “Knotweed Code of Practice” produced by the Environmental Agency, provide adequate guidance on controlling Japanese knotweed. The research highlighted that knotweed spreading from neighbouring properties was a potential problem, but in practice, neighbours usually reach mutual agreement to avoid high legal costs.

Japanese knotweed is an increasing problem in the UK and this research will increase the awareness of those instructed to inspect property or development sites where infestation may have occurred. Professionals within the construction industry including surveyors, estate agents, developers and project managers will all find this paper of benefit.

Large agricultural producers often demand seed with high yielding genetics along with specialty traits specific to their particular needs. Dairyland Seed Company prides itself on its superior genetics and a research program that adds specialty traits while retaining the qualities of the original variety. Dairyland sources specialty trait technology from two competing suppliers – DuPont and Monsanto. Each of these suppliers is currently pursuing a strategy of forward integration through aggressive marketing programs and acquisitions. The implications for access to future technologies and long‐term survival are profound, and leave Dairyland and other smaller seed companies with strategic decisions to make. This paper examines a channel of distribution for agricultural biotechnologies and the decisions faced by a small, reputable seed company when dealing with its large multinational biotechnology suppliers. Who should Dairyland be partnering with, and can Dairyland balance supplier dependency in an attempt to avoid being eliminated from the channel?

Post-harvest losses are becoming a huge issue worldwide and are predominantly severe in developing countries. Seeking ways to control post-harvest losses is important because losses decrease farm income by more than 15% for approximately 480 million small-scale farmers.

The study engaged Wave 4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standards Measurement Studies–Integrated Survey on Agriculture, to examine the impact of soil technology such as fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides and certified crops on post-harvest losses in Nigeria. The study engaged descriptive statistics, logit regression and propensity score matching (PSM) to analyse the data.

The study found that approximately 38% of the household harvest was lost along the value chain. In addition, the results showed that among the indicators of soil technology, crop certification has a significant impact on the reduction of post-harvest losses. The implication is that from the nearest neighbour and kernel-based matching, the use of certified crops by households contributed to 1.62 and 1.36% reduction in post-harvest losses, respectively. In contrast, pesticide, herbicide and fertiliser use had no significant impact on post-harvest losses.

One of the limitations is that this study applied the PSM, the model did not account for endogeneity. Therefore, in examining this concept, further studies should consider applying other impact model such as the difference-in-difference to account for endogeneity.

While previous studies have examined how ICT adoption, storage mechanisms and value chain among others help to minimise post-harvest losses, the aspect of how soil technology can reduce post-harvest losses has been a subject of exclusion in the extant literature. This study empirically examines the impact of soil technology adoption on post-harvest losses in Nigeria.

Herbicides are groundwater pollutants found where intensive agricultural practices are performed. This is the case in Northern Italy: atrazine, symazine, bentazone, molinate, and others were found in many aquifers over the last five years. Presents the first results of a series of pilot plant tests using low ozone doses (prior to GAC adsorption) to reduce oxidation by‐products formation. Tests were carried out utilizing a transportable emergency plant used by the Civil Protection Agency, based on ozone oxidation and GAC adsorption. Herbicides influent concentrations were up to 1.8 μg/l and ozone doses between 0.4 and 1.7 mg/l. Tested molecules displayed different behaviour but, with the exception of bentazone, contact time seemed to be the basic parameter for the removal of these compounds, some of which appeared to be quite resistant to ozone oxidation at these concentrations.

Weeds are any plants growing where they are not wanted. Their most profound effect is in reducing agricultural production. Chemical weed control is the most common method of attacking weeds. However there are several disadvantages in using herbicides including non‐target damage and environmental contamination. Biological weed control using natural enemies of weeds, insects or microorganisms, offers several advantages over chemical and mechanical control of weeds. The use of exotic organisms, usually insects, which reproduce and spread of their own accord (“classical biocontrol”) and the use of endemic organisms applied in high numbers (“inundative biocontrol”), usually fungi (“mycoherbicides” or “bioherbicides”), is discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of the herbicide triclopyr, nitrogen and their combinations on Striga incidence and sorghum growth.

A greenhouse study was undertaken in season 2013. Sorghum cv Wad Ahmed, urea and triclopyr were employed. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete design with four replicates.

Nitrogen alone suppressed the parasite completely early in the season. Triclopyr at 0.3 and 0.4 kg a.e. ha−1 reduced Striga emergence by 92.9 and 58.3 per cent early and late in the season, respectively. Triclopyr at 0.3 kg a.e. ha−1 applied subsequent to nitrogen at 43.8 kg ha−1 effected poor control of the parasite. Unrestricted Striga parasitism reduced sorghum height and chlorophyll content by 50.38 and 16.62 per cent, respectively. Triclopyr, nitrogen and their combination improved sorghum growth considerably.

The results suggest that the herbicide when applied subsequent to nitrogen afforded the most consistent performance and resulted in the highest suppression of the parasite.

The purpose of this paper is to explore environmental contamination from pesticide use in a Khao Kho Sub-district, Khao Kho District in Phetchabun Province, Thailand.

The study area was made up of four villages: Kanok Ngam, Lao Lue, Lao Neng and Phet Dam, all mostly highland areas whose inhabitants are mainly from the hill tribes. The 548 participants were recruited with inclusion criteria being that they must be living in the area over one year and are agriculturists or relevant who use pesticides. The data collection was divided into two parts: first, population data using a questionnaire; and second, samples of environmental media including agricultural products gathered to analyze the contamination of pesticides. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

The most planted crop was rice (53.52 percent). Regarding agricultural chemical uses, the study found that the majority of participants used herbicides (76.83 percent). In terms of herbicide uses, Glyphosate is the most used (39.59 percent). Furthermore, insecticide consumption uses were higher in Phet Dam village than the other villages. The most common uses were Carbaryl (20.66 percent), followed by β-Betoefluthrin (15.49 percent).

There were glyphosate and derivatives of glyphosate (Aminomethyl Phosphonic Acid) in soil and sediment samples, while herbicides and insecticides were not found in water and agricultural samples. Because these environmental contaminants are a major cause for health problems amongst producers and consumers alike, agriculturists should be supported by relevant organizations to increase organic crop cultivation methods and organic farming networks.