Journal of the Austrian Society of Agricultural Economics (JASAE)

Abstract : This study estimated the effect of demographic factors on the US household consumption of some selected food using the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDDS). Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database from 2004-2010 from the USDA site was used, containing information on prices, total expenditure, household size, divisions, and regions, respectively. Average household size was used because the data have different numbers of households across all divisions and regions. Demand for the selected food groups was estimated using Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS). The result of the QUAIDS model showed that all the expenditure elasticities were positive and statistically significant at the percent level, which implies that food items are normal goods. Furthermore, it was revealed that raw sugar (.96725022), ice cream/frozen desserts (.95327974), baked good mixes (.97466743), and bakery items ready to eat (.99237186) are necessities since their coefficients were less than one. Additionally, all own-price elasticities were negative, as expected in both compensated and uncompensated price elasticities estimated for food items. The result also revealed that baked good mixes were a substitute for raw sugar, bakery items ready to eat were substituted goods for non-carbonated calorie beverages, raw sugar and packaged sweets/baked goods was a substitute for good mixes, and non-carbonated calorie beverages was substitute for bakery items ready to eat which is an indication that foods were substitutes. In addition, Marshallian cross elasticities show that both baked goods mixes and packaged sweets/baked goods were substituted goods for raw sugar, and ice cream/frozen desserts were substituted goods for non-carbonated calorie beverages. Packaged sweets/baked goods and bakery ready to eat were substituted goods for ice cream/frozen desserts, and raw sugar and packaged sweets/baked goods were substituted goods for baked goods mixes. Also, raw sugar, ice cream, and frozen desserts, baked goods mixes were substituted for packaged sweets/baked goods. In contrast, non-carbonated calorie beverages and ice cream/frozen desserts were substitutes for bakery items ready to eat. Therefore it is recommended that economic policies be made to prevent fluctuations in food prices in the US..
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Abstract : Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a significant role in soil fertility. Changes in SOC are associated with carbon input from organic materials. This study was conducted to assess the organic carbon dynamics of lowland soil from first to sixth cropping. A lowland area devoted to rice production under different production systems in six (6) successive croppings was evaluated. Results revealed that SOC changes with cropping. The second cropping generally showed higher SOC than the rest of the cropping period. In the sixth cropping, SOC in all production systems was comparable. The results suggest that organic amendments can be a good substitute for inorganic fertilizers in improving soil fertility aside from producing safe food to eat..
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Abstract : Positioning and guiding robots is one of the significant issues in mobile robotics. Positioning and navigation are essential for indoor workshops because GPS signals have no effect and significant errors. There are many solutions for indoor robot positioning, such as odometry, INS, ultrasonic, laser range finder (LRF), computer vision [1- 3], and RF positioning systems such as RSSI [4], [5], UWB [6- 11], chirp spread-spectrum (CSS) [13]. In this paper, we use UWB, combine IMU to locate the robot in the house, dead reckoning [14], and Kalman [15] extension to filter the signal under the embedded dspic32 chip..
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Abstract : A comprehensive assessment to determine species composition of a logged-over dipterocarp forest in Kahupian, Sogod, Southern Leyte was conducted as contribution in documenting vegetation in remaining dipterocarp forest patches of the Philippines. The species composition was described by way of Braun-Blanquet (1964) methodology. The study had three sampling sites. Ten plots per sites were taken, at plot size of 20m x 20m and total area of sampled stands of 1.2ha. A total of 154 species, in 60 families and 104 genera, were recorded in the inventory. Of these, 131 are tree species and 23 are non-tree. The 131 tree species belong to 44 families and 84 genera. The 23 non-tree species were in 17 families and 22 genera. The highly represented tree families were the Dipterocarpaceae, with 13 species. Tanguile (Shorea polysperma), mayapis (Shorea palosapis) and white lauan (Shorea contorta) were the most frequently dominating and widespread within the site. The Jaccard similarity index in comparing the 3 sampling sites was 0.39 to 0.44, which indicated less than half of the species occurred commonly in any two sites. This suggests high variation in species composition from site to site and that intensive and extensive data collection is needed before a final assessment on floral diversity in Southern Leyte should be attempted..
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Abstract : Khok Nong Na model (KNNM) is currently introduced to farmers in Thailand as an efficient farm practice to operate agriculture, through maximizing land use and water conservation, to improve livelihood. This study focuses on farmers’ social-ecological factors influencing the adoption of KNNM. A questionnaire was systematically built based on bottom-up approach with elements of related literature. This was an attempt to formulate the fine-tuned questionnaire for the quantitative examination. Data collected from 200 farmers in Kut Chum district, Yasothon Province were used to study the social, economic, and environmental factors that determine the adoption of KNNM. The results showed that the most significant factor bolstering farmers’ adoption intention was environmental benefits such as adjusting the land use for being more suitable for agricultural activities. Also, the influence of social factors contributed positively to the adoption of KNNM was observed. Most notably, participating in KNNM to evolve farms to learning centers to earn respect from the community and the comprehensiveness of resources facilitated by organizations. These findings shed light on how to establish strategies to encourage farmers to embrace KNNM..
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