ORCID Profile
0000-0002-5715-791X
Current Organisation
University of South Australia
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 31-07-2022
DOI: 10.3390/SU14159385
Abstract: Although many studies have assessed the impact of extension, most treat the presence or absence of extension as a binary variable to test treatment effects, and fewer investigate how the type of provider (e.g., govt. rivate) and the frequency of the contact (number of extension visits) impact farm household welfare. To address this knowledge gap, this article investigates the impact of agricultural extension access, frequency, and provider type on chemical fertilizer application, crop yield, and profit. Data from a nationwide survey in 2015 in Bangladesh, a case country with a heavy over-application of urea fertilizer, are the basis for the endogenous switching regression approach to control for potential self-selection and endogeneity. The empirical results revealed significant differences in the outcomes for farmers who had just one extension contact, more than one extension contact, and those who accessed private provisions. We found that farmers who frequently accessed extension used significantly less urea fertilizer than farmers who accessed extension only once. Farmers who accessed extension more frequently also experienced a statistically significantly higher yield and profit from cropping. Private extension access appeared to result in statistically significantly higher incomes but not reduced urea fertilizer application rates. Our results suggest that a more nuanced understanding can be gained from extension source and frequency treatment effects modelling than with the presence or absence of the extension binary variable formulation that is most common in the literature.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-05-2022
DOI: 10.1186/S40066-022-00365-6
Abstract: High-yielding variety (HYV) seed breeding has been one key approach to improving agricultural productivity and to reduce global hunger and poverty. This paper explores the causal relationship between high-yielding rice variety, rice productivity, farm income and household nutrition. A challenge with evaluating the impact of changes such as crop varieties on yield is self-selection and endogeneity. This article robustly identifies marginal input contributions, correcting for self-selection potential by applying matched Difference in Difference method. We found that the farms that switched from local to HYV, experienced around 35% higher yield and 76% higher profit from Aman rice than non-adopting farms. More calorie intake, more protein and especially higher fruit and vegetable intake meant less calorie poverty for adopted households. This recent evidence suggests improved seed remains a high potential return investment for regions of the world where smallholder farming and malnutrition is a wider phenomenon.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2000
DOI: 10.1016/S0952-7915(99)00065-5
Abstract: The mechanisms controlling the commitment of hematopoietic progenitor cells to the lymphoid lineages are still mostly unknown. Recent findings indicate that the earliest phase of B cell development may proceed in two steps. At the onset of B-lymphopoiesis, the transcription factors E2A and EBF coordinately activate the B-cell-specific gene expression program. Subsequently, Pax5 appears to repress the promiscuous transcription of lineage-inappropriate genes and thus commits progenitor cells to the B-lymphoid pathway by suppressing alternative cell fates. B-lineage commitment by Pax5 seems to occur in a stochastic manner in the bone marrow, as indicated by the random activation of only one of the two Pax5 alleles in early pro-B cells. In contrast, loss- and gain-of-function analyses have implicated the Notch1 receptor in the specification of the T cell fate, which may thus be controlled by instructive signals in the thymus.
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2017
No related grants have been discovered for Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman.