Home > Impact of Vegetable Production Through Hydroponics Technology on Agricultural Development and Trade in Pakistan a Computable General Equilibrium Analysis
Impact of Vegetable Production Through Hydroponics Technology on Agricultural Development and Trade in Pakistan a Computable General Equilibrium Analysis
Pakistan is endowed with enormous agricultural resources for production of vegetables. The productivity of vegetable is stagnant from decades in the country. Improving productivity leads to food security. Vegetables constitute major element of human diet globally. Among vegetables tomato is important for its use in human diet. Average yield of tomato was 9.17 ton/ha in 1985, which slightly increased to 9.6 ton/ha in 2016 as against world average of 24.22 to 34.53 ton/ha. during the same period. Gap between demand and supply of tomato is increasing forcing Pakistan to import tomato since 2003. The present study was designed to address the issue of productivity stagnation through hydroponics technology and harvesting the fruit of globalization through exporting vegetables to the food deficit regions. The study constitutes primary and secondary data and Global trade analysis project (GTAP) database. Primary data was collected from hydroponics firm for fifty seven months on productivity, cost, revenue and trade parameters. Secondary data of agriculture input and output was collected from secondary sources. For CGE modeling GTAP database version 9 was used as a tool to analyze impact of changes in productivity on macroeconomic factors. GTAP version 9 included 140 regions 57 commodities and 8 factors of production. These factors are aggregated to analyze global effects of productivity improvement through hydroponics technology in Pakistan. Three scenarios I, II and III were built with productivity shock of 25 percent, 50 percent and 50 percent coupled with tariff free regime with importing country and relaxing tariff on importing hydroponics inputs. Results indicated that production of tomato is rising by 5.41 percent per annum and demands by 6.27 percent per annum from last many decades in Pakistan. The gap in demand and supply of tomato was fulfilled by importing tomato which is growing by 17 percent per annum since 2003, ultimately posing substantial burden on foreign reserves of the country. Average productivity of tomato in hydroponics was found to be 162±6.6 ton per hectare from 2009 to 2013 in Pakistan. The technology has been characterized for input use, output and trade potential in Pakistan. Cost benefit analysis of commercial hydroponics at two hectares was found to be positive. Return from hydroponics increased significantly by use of family labour. Small value of domestic resource cost indicate the comparative vi advantage of Pakistan in the production of hydroponics. Breakeven volume of hydroponics firm was found to be 150 ton. Labour cost and supply chain management cost of hydroponics was found to be significantly affecting total value product of hydroponics. Results of secondary data analysis using ARDL model revealed that seed, water, credit, tractor and fertilizer have both long run and short run relationship with area under vegetables in Pakistan. Global trade analysis indicated that simulation II and III has significantly contributed in improving macroeconomic indicators like real GDP, real export, real import, real investment, terms of trade, rental rate of return in Pakistan. Local prices of fruits and vegetables were decreased due to these simulations explaining consumer welfare in the country. On the basis of this, global horticultural productivity improvement model is proposed for Pakistan which would help the developing countries to solve the problem of productivity stagnation in the country and earning foreign exchange through export promotion (ultimate target of Strategic Trade Policy Framework of the Government of Pakistan).
Humanity is not immortal and suffers from accidents and disaster. These dangers may exist in the present or future and humans are compelled to face all kinds of dangers. So human beings have always been taking measures to overcome the dangers. Islam also allows for adopting different methods to overcome and indemnify all expected disasters but that methods should be in sharia limitations. Takaful is that kind of method that is practised in Muslim world. Takaful companies are offering takaful policies on the basis of Wakala, Waqf, Modharba and Hybrid models. This article makes awareness about a model of takaful, “Modharba model”. It explains the takaful Modharba model in the parameters of actual Introduction conditions and sharia bases of modharbat. It is resulted that this model has great contradiction with the concept of actual sharia modharbat. Many sharia concerns are found in this model that’s why this model is not suitable for Takaful. Takaful should be on the basis of pure Tabarrou. In which people help one another on the basis of mutual assistance and cooperation not because of just their own benefits.
Frequency diverse array (FDA) radars have gained exceptional attention from the researchers during the past decade, due to their unique range-angle and time modulated beampatterns. This range–angle dependent beampattern provides additional degrees of freedom in the spatial domain as compared to a conventional phased array radar that offers only an angle dependent beampattern. The range-angle- time dependent beampattern with the aid of advanced signal processing algorithms, has been exploited for interference suppression, beamforming, direction of arrival estimation, target tracking, and localization in radar environments. In this dissertation, utilizing the extra degrees of freedom in FDA, new beamforming schemes have been proposed. In linear frequency diverse array radars (LFDA), null steering in cognitive radar system has been proposed. This work is a ‘near to implementable form’ of cognitive radar system that offers a null steering solution both in range and angle dimensions. Similarly frequency offset selection based 3D adaptive transmit beamforming has been proposed for planar frequency diverse array radars (PFDA). The proposed scheme outsmarts other existing techniques in terms of concentrated maxima, deeper nulls and enhanced system signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). Previous researches have focused largely on evaluating FDA system performance in uniform linear array (ULA) and uniform rectangular arrays. Despite the advantages and implementation convenience of other array geometries, they have not been extensively investigated. In this thesis, new geometries like “circular” and “elliptical” have also been explored in the domain of frequency diversity. Normally, 3D localization of targets can be achieved with PFDA, but investigation in this dissertation validates that uniform circular frequency diverse array (UCFDA) offers much sharper localization, improved directivity and better adaptive beamforming performance as compared to PFDA. Despite the fact that UCFDA offers much improved beamforming performance and signal to interference plus noise ratio than PFDA, circular geometry is a high side lobe geometry. Investigation into elliptical frequency diverse arrays (EFDA) reveals that, much better range selectivity and reduced side lobe levels can be achieved. Extending the domain of frequency diversity further, the thesis also focuses on UCFDA and EFDA with non-uniform frequency offset. The non-uniform function selected for this purpose is tangent hyperbolic function. The proposed systems not only offers a highly configurable type array system but also outsmarts the existing non-uniform frequency offset scheme in terms of significantly reduced side lobe levels.