Category: Assignments Content

  • Sustainable Agriculture for Food Environmental Sciences

    Sustainable Agriculture for Food Environmental Sciences

    Sustainable Agriculture for Food; It stands defined in various ways and terms; the FAO (2000) defines it as the admin and conservation of the natural resource base; and, the orientation of technological and institutional bend in such a ventilate as to ensure the taking back more; and the continued satisfaction of human needs for expertise and well ahead generations. The Technical Advisory Committee of the Consultative Group in sham to International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) defined sustainable agriculture as the proficiently-to-get sticking to of government of resources for agriculture to satisfy changing human needs even though maintaining or enhancing the vibes of the environment and conserving natural resources.

    Here are the articles to explain, What is Sustainable Agriculture for Food Environmental Sciences Essay?

    Agriculture remains the backbone of the economy in many developing countries; it is necessary to auspices occurring lift people out of poverty and hunger by creating a stable pension source; especially in rural areas, that can contribute to the progress of a green or sustainable economy, not single-handedly at the national but as well as globally. Shortly, the population, water, and food security will be omnipotent issues, the global population would probably achieve 9 billion. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates; that 60% more food will need to preserve all these people in 2050.

    Sustainable agriculture is agricultural products that need to meet the needs of current and remote generations; and, it needs to define not unaccompanied in terms of their long-term economic potential; but as well as in terms of their environmental and social promotion and costs. The effect of gardening practices on the social structure of rural communities and auxiliary populations needs to evaluate in terms of sustainability; sustainable agriculture is any suite of agronomic practices that should be economically doable, environmentally safe, and socially enjoyable.

    Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO);

    The FAO in 1995, specifically defined sustainable agriculture and rural build happening as a process that should meet these criteria; Firstly, ensuring that the basic nutritional needs of the assigned minister and in the disaffect ahead generations stand met both qualitatively and quantitatively, supplying a variety of accumulation agricultural products; Secondly provides sustainable employment, times-privileged pension and decent vivacious and on the go conditions for all those engaged in farm production; Thirdly, Maintains and strengthens the production execution of the natural resource base as a sum and the regenerative finishing of renewable resources wherever reachable; fourthly, reduces agricultural sector aeration to adverse environmental and socio-economic factors and counter threats, and strengthens self-reliance.

    Sustainable agriculture is the answerability of every one of the program stakeholders, including producers, staff, policy-makers, academics, retailers, and customers; every part of the share of the group has its role to produce a result; and its unique contribution to the extension of the sustainable farming community. This essay will go into detail and introduce the main components of sustainability in the agricultural sector; the concept and the components of Sustainable Agriculture, the regulation and policies; why it is important for us, why we compulsion Sustainable Agriculture; and some examples of delightful practices of sustainability in agriculture; and the money program for Sustainable Agriculture in EU and the global level.

    Common sustainable agricultural policy in the EU and USA;

    The European Union is moving towards sustainable agriculture, which plays a key role in internal and external policies. The common agricultural policy (CAP) of the EU stood developed in 1962; as a collaboration between agriculture and society and between all EU countries; and their farmers, the main goals are to help farmers and increase agricultural productivity, climate change; and sustainable natural resource management, to maintain rural areas and ecosystems throughout; the EU and to maintain the rural economy by supporting employment in agriculture, agri-food, and related sectors.

    For all EU countries, the CAP is a common policy, farmers should operate in a sustainable; and environmentally friendly way, and protect our soil and biodiversity. The CAP takes action with income support through direct payments ensuring income stability and remunerating farmers for environmentally friendly cultivation, policy interventions to cope with challenging market conditions, and rural development measures through national and regional programs to address the specific needs and problems facing rural areas.

    The CAP helps farmers satisfy their social functions in the following ways: producing food, developing rural communities, and sustainable agriculture. In US farm policy, the Farm Bill has included provisions promoting more organic farming, making it easier for fruit and vegetable farmers to apply for crop insurance, and encouraging farmers to adopt more sustainable practices in their working fields.

    Components of Sustainable Agriculture;

    Soil management, crop management, water management, disease or pest management; and waste management are the main components of sustainable agriculture, Future sustainability can determine by the most limiting element and these elements may change over time including population density, water, fossil fuel energy, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, salinity, economy, and agricultural land quantities.

    Good soil management practices need to achieve the sustainability principle, including spreading fertilizer, implementing composts, planting cover crops, and decreasing tillage. Best crop management practices include pinching, chopping, hilling, and suckering. The Best practices for water management include drip irrigation, rotational grazing, crop covering, dry farming, water capture and storage, and irrigation scheduling.

    Concept and evaluation of Sustainable Agriculture;

    Sustainable agriculture must be sensitive to all economic social and environmental challenges; and these three factors play an important role in achieving sustainable agriculture or any sustainable challenges, environmental issues contribute to the growth of contemporary social economics, and the key socioeconomic issues to tackle are poverty alleviation, changes in consumption, population dynamics, protection of the environment and human health. Sustainable development, according to the World Conservation Union (1991); improves the quality of life by living within the capacity to maintain ecosystems.

    It is a complex issue related to food production; while preserving our natural resources including soil and water without any negative impact on the natural ecosystem. In general, the concept of sustainable agriculture should be to maintain today’s and tomorrow’s human needs with food quality, maintain natural resources, economically viable farming practices for productivity improvement, maintain or improve soil fertility, minimal impact on the wide environment, and social acceptability.

    The Response-Inducing Sustainability Assessment (RISE) approach has stood developed by the Swiss School of Agriculture; Forest and Food Sciences in Bern to evaluate sustainability in as objective and systematic a way as possible. RISE has been in use since 2000, helping to make farm activities sustainable measurable, and communicable. It studies a single farm operation using surveys to collect information on 10 sustainability indicators across economic ecological and social dimensions, such as soil use and livestock production. In addition, RISE provides valuable insights for policy advice; since some shortcomings in sustainability are the result of the structural framework rather than of farm management.

    Why is sustainable agriculture important to us?

    Important because it means human food, fuel, and fiber needs while maintaining habitat conservation and biodiversity protection. Sustainable agriculture is essential in our lives and plays an important role in the future; because it is related directly and indirectly to our food security and connected with other economic, social, and environmental factors. The main priority is to ensure that the agricultural supply of goods, food, water, air, and soil meets present; and future needs by building and maintaining healthy soil, managing water use, reducing air, water, and climate pollution, and promoting biodiversity.

    Examples of good practices of sustainable agriculture;

    There is many good and successful practice of sustainable agriculture such as organic farming; which is a good food production and farm management system with best environmental practices which provide high-quality public goods. Biogas production from manure and agricultural waste is a source of renewable energy and provides farmers with additional income. By providing ecosystems that are an important component of agricultural landscapes; biodiversity can increase through grazing practices, and permanent pastures play a significant role in carbon storage.

    Applying Integrated Pest Management (IPM) by using mechanical and biological controls; can routinely implemented to maintain the control of pest species while reducing the use of chemical pesticides. Integrating livestock and crops by managing the feed process and fertilizers process, Planting cover crops. cover crops preserve and create soil health by preventing erosion, replenishing soil nutrients, and keeping weeds under control, reducing herbicide requirements.

    How can we promote sustainable agriculture?

    Education, awareness, agricultural advice, resource accessibility, land, and water are important for sustainable agriculture, particularly for smallholder farmers in developing countries. Sustainable growth-oriented farming requires infrastructure for production and access to working markets, in some countries, the small-scale farmers stand still often excluded from the formal credit market and other services as they cannot give any collateral to banks and this must solve to help the small farmers to sustain the quantity and the quality of farming production.

    Communication technologies play an increasingly important role in the agricultural and downstream industries; such as mobile and internet services used in the agricultural services, such as market price sharing and consulting, and others services.

    Support Programs for Sustainable Agriculture;

    Many programs are working to develop sustainable agriculture in the EU and Globally. In the EU, the European Foundations for Sustainable Agriculture and Food (EFSAF) network has a medium- to long-term emphasis aimed at promoting a more sustainable, integrated European food policy covering agricultural, rural, food, and health policies. The EU program known as NSPIA stands also intended to demonstrate sustainable; productive agriculture through the implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs) and progress measurement through a set of key indicators.

    The new EU work program Horizon 2020 was launched on 27 October 2017, including a € 1 billion investment in information and development in agriculture, food, and rural development, to make agriculture more sustainable, safer, and much more diverse, and rural areas a better place to live and work, strongly connected also with current and future objectives of the common agricultural policy, this includes helping to make the agriculture sector smarter, more strong and more environmentally sustainable.

    In developing countries, the sustainability of agriculture facing many challenges is a matter of concern for various stakeholders; for example, in India, the challenges are due to agro-climatic or environmental, social, and economic dimensions. Overall, many of the issues facing sustainable agriculture programs in developing countries include, population pressure, subsistence farming, rural poverty, degradation of natural resources such as deforestation, land degradation, decreasing productivity, unclear and strong regulations, and policies, and gender disparities.

    Conclusions;

    Sustainable agriculture is most important and contributes in a certain mannerism to the group, the mood, and the economy; and it is the best unconventional now and in the well along to save and construct our world; The concept of the sustainable loan in agriculture has played a significant ecological role in the sustainability debate; the scale of sustainability, whether regarding the farm local or regional level, all impacts concerning the global aspect as the earth forms one large ecosystem. The global aspect of sustainability is, in general, a fundamental principle of sustainable agriculture encroachment.

    Using tidy technology and renewable simulation can be the best practices and tactics in sustainability, cunning crop growing through the exponentially increasing use of recommendation and communication technology (ICT) in agriculture decreases farming’s environmental footprint by preventing leaching issues as swiftly as greenhouse gas emissions, and by controlling and reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and reducing water losses in irrigation. Developing countries crave more attentiveness, more research, and insist on programs to save water and food and guard the setting and produce their communities and economies.

    Sustainable Agriculture for Food Environmental Sciences Image
    Sustainable Agriculture for Food Environmental Sciences; Image by Lakshmiraman Oza from Pixabay.
  • Supply Chain Models Comparison Theories Assignments Essay

    Supply Chain Models Comparison Theories Assignments Essay

    Comparison of Supply Chain Models and Theories in Assignments Essay; Introduction – The notion of “supply chain management” was first used by consultants in the 1980s; however, other scholars would argue that supply chain management arose from the logistical processes, costing methods, transportation, and physical distribution. The term supply chain management is a relatively new phenomenon but has become one of the most crucial components for a business’s success.

    Here is the article to explain, What is the Comparison of Supply Chain Models and Theories Assignments Essay?

    Author Croom et al, 2000, categorized the subject area of supply chain management into six categories; Strategic Management, Relationships and Partnerships, Logistics, Best practices, Marketing, and Organisational Behaviour. Argued that scholars have approached supply chain management from a restrictive functional view; and operationally integrated linkages (between buyers and suppliers) to end-to-end management of; for example, information and material flow, quality, and design.

    Supply chain management has been referring to using terms such as “distribution channels”, “network sourcing”, “supply pipeline management”, “value chain management”, and “value stream management”. Many scholars even today would dispute over just; what supply chain management is and with various conceptual models with many different supply chain frameworks; often this poses the question as to which is the most optimal one for a company.

    Supply chain models and theories came into full force when the Japanese car company Toyota revealed their “lean manufacturing”, processes to the world. As a result of their lean concept which focuses on the reduction of waste within the manufacturing environment, automotive companies around the world have aimed to perfect; their manufacturing processes, and many companies, like Nissan, aim to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of their processes.

    As with many industries, the automotive industry, especially in the modern era, relies heavily on suppliers in their manufacturing processes, long gone the days of Henry Ford’s mass production days where most cars were made in-house. As a result of economies of scale, labor costs, production costs, technical know-how, and globalization, many car companies now consider outsourcing for many components of their manufacturing process; thus making supply chain management a vital component of their business. For this paper, one can argue the “efficient” supply chain model is the driving model behind the Nissan – Renault- Mitsubishi alliance and manufacturing of the Qashqai car.

    The Efficient Supply Chain Model;

    The “efficient” supply chain model one could argue is the driving model behind the Renault-Nissan and Mitsubishi alliance. The efficient supply chain model outlines how managers should focus on maximizing end-to-end efficiency including high rates of asset utilization in a bid to lower costs. As to how effective this model is and how closely these companies follow; this model is under scrutiny by academics and will be critically evaluated in this paper.

    Reflection to the Case Study;

    The logic behind the conclusion that this case study is an example of an efficient, although failed, supply chain model will outline in this report. One of the main factors of this case study that can lead one to draw this conclusion is the agreement; which all three automotive companies aim to meet that is: “each company acts in the financial interest of the other; while maintaining an individual brand, identities, and independent corporate cultures”.

    Example;

    Unlike Toyota which adopted a Lean manufacturing process, this case study had a completely different aim and set of parameters. This case involved three leading car companies working together to develop a new car, the Qashqai. The Toyota Model works well and lean generally is a lot easier to manage; where it is one OEM and the suppliers of the OEM are all focused on that OEM. Toyota installed Lean thinking in its company culture, heritage, and suppliers; which all work together and prove to be very effective.

    Toyota’s lean concept focuses on eliminating waste throughout the organization and supply network.  The elimination of waste design to reduce costs and save time. Cost and Time are crucial elements. In this case study, cost-sharing is the crucial element not cost elimination; this is the major difference between the two conceptional models. One model eliminates waste and reduces cost, the other aims to utilize assets throughout the end-to-end supply chain; and share costs in a way to reduce the cost for each company.

    Details;

    According to the  Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group; “organizational efficiency defines as an internal standard of performance”. Supply chain efficiency is related to whether a company’s processes are harnessing resources in the best way possible; whether those resources are financial, human, technological, or physical. However, the definition of efficiency does not include customer satisfaction. There may be a very efficient supply chain that minimizes costs for materials and packaging; but as in the case of the Qashqai car model, faulty components existed installed into the car; which means that more than 25,000 cars existed recalled due to a brake fault problem.

    Objective;

    The objective of the alliance was to create a product that meant; that customers would pay less for fuel as this car would use “cutting edge technology” to be fuel-efficient. By using lighter and more innovative components, the car should “reduce fuel consumption by 20%”. Coming back to the point made in the previous paragraph; whilst aiming to achieve this objective, the development lead time from 20.75 months was to reduce to just 10.50 months; and reducing costs from 10 billion euros to 4 billion euros.

    Achieve;

    To achieve this at the time of “launching the Qashqai, they relied on the adoption and adaptation of other organizations’ best practices. This is another reason why one could conclude that the supply chain conceptional model used by the alliance was the “efficient supply chain model”. The companies aimed to utilize the assets of each company, i.e. best practices, to develop this cutting-edge technology.

    In addition, it can conclude from the actions and strategies from the alliance that efficiency in terms of the supply chain model; does not always mean it is effective as stated previously the reduction in development time and the cost was an internal strategy using internal standards; which didn’t benefit the end-user as the car was faulty.

    The Customer-Driven Supply Chain Model;

    A customer-driven supply chain is a concept that aims to enhance the efficiency of operations in business by synchronizing activities; such as planning, production, and deliveries to appropriately react to customer requirements. The objective outlined in the case study which is what the alliance was aiming to achieve was reducing fuel consumption, increasing comfort and drivability, and increasing the degree of smoothness when traveling to and from destinations. This is very similar to the lean process model used by Toyota such as synchronization of activities; however, this model doesn’t place a strong emphasis on waste elimination where lean does; this model places the customer requirements as higher regard and in the case study.

    This is apparent where the use of company best practices and innovative new designs are being utilized to react to customer requirements for the need to fuel reduction and improve the driving experience. This conceptional model also differs from the efficient model which places a stronger emphasis on internal processes; and, in this case, study: “reducing lead time and costs” not necessarily paying as much attention to creating a product that meets requirements and safety checks.

    Reflection to the Case Study;

    The customer-driven supply chain model relies on the company’s ability to identify the customer needs and how to deal with these needs effectively. For the automotive industry, there are many requirements to meet. The reliability of manufacturer, design, function, and cost are purchasing decisions that a customer will use to decide on which car/ product to buy. A customer is more likely to put cost and function as their core concern.

    It can say that the NMUK alliance tried to respond to this by manufacturing a car that met both the cost and functional aspects. By manufacturing a car that would reduce fuel consumption by 20% by using lightweight materials; and by manufacturing a car that felt and drove much more comfortably for even greater distances. This is the general theme that was picked up and used as a focal point when establishing the alliance. Customers are more likely to place cost and functionality as primal categories in their decision-making process.

    Achieve;

    To achieve this NMUK’s corporate suite strategy was to; “systematically reduce development lead time from 20.75 months to 10.50 months, reducing costs from 10 billion euros to 4 billion euros”. By setting this strategy NMUK was aiming to reduce the costs drastically; which potentially could pass on to the end customers. Therefore, achieving one of the major purchasing decisions that customers base their decisions on, cost. Secondly, the other strategy NMUK used to meet the customer’s second decision-making aspect functionality, NMUK designed the Qashqai using “cutting edge and innovative lightweight components and materials”.

    These two objectives can argue to act as the primary focus which all other decisions were based around. The idea of reducing cost while increasing functionality. NMUK adapted and adopted the best practices of its partner companies whilst on one hand from; the previous post this was considered an efficient conceptional framework. On the other hand, one can argue this was based around the customer-driven supply chain model. NMUK sourced tier-one suppliers that could achieve further cost savings of 10%, thus reducing the overall cost even more. It can be argued that NMUK’s procurement decisions were based around; this concept of delivering better materials which had the positive effect of cost minimization.

    Decision;

    Another decision NMUK made which could interpret as a customer-driven supply chain models and theories concept was the use of offshoring and outsourcing. Offshoring and Outsourcing are inevitable, some scholars would argue. In this case study, NMUK outsourced the materials and even the technology in a bid to increase and maximize its functionality and reduce cost. However, this created a drastic consequence for NMUK; which will discuss later in the report where a detailed analysis of the supply chain decisions will evaluate.

    To conclude the point, these strategies although driven by customer decisions of cost reduction and improved functionality; led to what many scholars argue as a tremendous hindrance for the effectiveness of this supply chain and overall performance. UK’s decision to outsource as much as “45% of complicated modular components” led to lower production control, lower quality checks, and increased risk and delays.

    Conclusion;

    In conclusion, as discussed in the previous post two supply chain models and theories could draw from; this case study one is the efficient supply chain model, the other is the customer-driven supply chain model. Possibly, others could argue that this is an example of a learning supply chain models and theories; however, evidence from the case study suggests that the alliance group, although targeted to reduce lead time from 20.75 months to 10.50 months; and reduce costs from 10 billion euros to 4 billion euros; they did not adopt a kaizen or waste management strategy when transforming their process.

    Kaizen “refers to continuous accumulations of small betterment activities rather; than innovative improvement” and will refer to in the supply chain operational process post. Therefore, in this paper, this supply chain model is disregarded as evidence shows from Toyota’s manufacturing process; this incident wouldn’t have happened. In a lean process system, all possibilities of waste would target and eliminate. The continuous improvement would occur, whereas Nissan decided to innovate rapidly and outsource unproven technology.

    Suggestion;

    Furthermore, as suggested in the previous theories this case study demonstrates two supply chain models; and one could argue that these models intertwine with one another, meaning there is no one such sole model on which Nissan was based. On one hand, Nissan and the alliance were attempting to meet customer demands for innovative products at a lower cost and enhance functional ability. On the other hand, they attempted to achieve this through an efficient supply chain model; where they attempted to utilize assets from each company and adopt a cost-sharing platform to reduce costs for each company.

    This could say to be an example of an efficient supply chain model. Therefore, an analysis of this case study suggests that; this supply chain model was a combination of a customer-driven and efficient supply chain model. As proven in the case study, this may not be the most effective model; as it is often difficult to meet one criterion whilst achieving another.

    Supply Chain Models Comparison Theories Assignments Essay Image
    Supply Chain Models Comparison Theories Assignments Essay; Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay.

    References; Comparison of Supply Chain Models. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/assignments/comparison-of-supply-chain-models-2021.php?vref=1