The aim of this study is to understand how ideas about markets and marketing have shaped food policy. It focuses on the vegetable sector in England in the early years of the new millennium. The study takes the 2002 Report of the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Foo…
"46" Result
Sort By:
This thesis is concerned with evaluating the principles of, and approaches to, contemporary land redistribution programmes. Using contemporary South African land redistribution policy as a case study, it examines the policy process of a land reform programme. This enables an ass…
This research is concerned with the dynamic relationship between agricultural advisers, knowledge and soil in England. On the basis that agricultural advisers have always played a central role in linking research and farming practice and implementing policy on the farm, the thes…
Over the past two decades the expansion of soybean production in Brazil has been assessed and used as an example of the success or failure of large-scale, mechanized agricultural production. Indeed, the economic, social and environmental implications of this agricultural expansi…
This thesis explores how, in the wake of momentous agrarian reforms implemented during the 1980s and 1990s, Vietnam succeeded in generating both a strong increase in agricultural growth, and remarkable trends in poverty reduction. Three specific channels of transmission between …
This thesis looks directly into the controversial subject of the microwave field effect by the production of a versatile prototype isothermal microwave reactor for the investigation of enzymatic and microbiological reactions. The observed results from the prototype reactor and e…
Economic, political and environmental factors have prioritized the need for research on phosphate (Pi) acquisition efficiency (PAE), Pi use efficiency (PUE) and Pi fertilizer uptake efficiency in crops. However, the coordination of molecular responses to Pi starvation and the me…
This thesis investigates the development of regional agri-food systems and their supply chains to understand how they affect the sustainability of rural regions. It argues that the existing dichotomies of alternative-local and conventional-global do not provide a sufficiently nu…
In many developing countries, those people who work the land as food producers are also the ones who most suffer from food insecurity. While many studies look at the power dynamics within the food system at the global level and the role played by transnational companies in parti…
Worldwide, an estimated 9.1 billion birds may need to be killed on farm each year. As of January 2013 the use of manual cervical dislocation (MCD) as a killing method for poultry on-farm has been heavily restricted through new EU legislation (EC 1099/2009) on the Welfare of Anim…
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the factors controlling the spread and distribution of bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) in Scotland. Bracken has long been an agricultural problem and, more recently, fears have been raised about the plant's carcinogenic properties. Despite …
Dairy calves in the U.K. are currently reared on ‘least cost’ principles, with minimal milk feeding and early weaning to solid foods. This has been described as maintaining the calf in ‘a state of chronic hunger’. As well as repercussions on calf health, growth and welfare, huma…
Pesticides are used worldwide and exhibit a plethora of different modes of action against a wide spectrum of organisms. Therefore, before they can be marketed they have to be tested against certain standardised regulations. These include the Food and Environment Protection Act 1…
This dissertation, by comparing the agricultural biotechnology sector in the Netherlands and the UK, aims to understand the advantages and disadvantages posed by intermediary organisations for the promotion of knowledge exchange between universities and industry. An original con…
Livestock-based agriculture plays an important role in the development of sub-saharan Africa, especially those countries whose livestock industry contributes significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In Kenya, agriculture alone accounts for 21% of the GDP and provides e…
Liriomyza bryoniae is an economically important pest of vegetable and ornamental crops in European glasshouse agriculture. Diglyphus isaea is a parasitoid of Liriomyza leaf miners and is commercially available as a biological control agent. Anecdotal reports made to commercial p…
Anaerobic digestion technology has not gained widespread acceptance on UK farms due mainly to the long return on investment periods involved. It has been suggested that co-digestion of agricultural and industrial wastes may enhance the economic viability of such installations. B…
The principal aim of this investigation was to understand the transformation and reaction kinetics of iodide and iodate added to soil in relation to soil properties. In addition, to integrate the data into a predictive model of iodide and iodate sorption kinetics parameterised b…