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    Quantifying Farm Household Resilience and the Implications of Livelihood Heterogeneity in the Semi-Arid Tropics of India
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-03-25) Ramilan T; Kumar S; Haileslassie A; Craufurd P; Scrimgeour F; Kattarkandi B; Whitbread A; Caracciolo F
    The vast majority of farmers in the drylands are resource-poor smallholders, whose livelihoods depend heavily on their farming systems. Therefore, increasing the resilience of these smallholders is vital for their prosperity. This study quantified household resilience and identified livelihoods and their influence on resilience in the semiarid tropics of India by analysing 684 households. A resilience capacity index was devised based on the composition of household food and non-food expenditure, cash savings, and food and feed reserves. The index ranged from 8.4 reflecting highly resilient households with access to irrigation characteristics, to-3.7 for households with highly limited resilience and low household assets. The livelihoods were identified through multivariate analysis on selected socioeconomic and biophysical variables; households were heterogeneous in their livelihoods. Irrigated livestock and rainfed marginal types had the highest and lowest resilience capacity index with the mean score of 0.69 and −1.07, respectively. Finally, we quantified the influence of livelihood strategies on household resilience. Household resilience was strengthened by the possession of livestock, crop diversification and access to irrigation. Low resilience is predominantly caused by low household assets. The resilience capacity index and derived livelihood strategies helps to understand the complexity of household resilience, and will aid in targeting technology interventions for development.
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    The application of nanobubbles in agriculture : this thesis is submitted in accordance with the regulations, governing the award of the degree of Master of Engineering with Honours in Chemical and Bio Process Engineering, Department of Chemical and Bio Process Engineering, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023-06) Gibbon, Ian Peter
    Nanobubbles have an extensive range of applications across engineering and industry. Our area of interest lies in agriculture and horticulture: Irrigation, using water enriched with oxygen nanobubbles, has been shown to greatly improve crop yields when compared to irrigation with untreated water. Currently, there are no manufacturers in New Zealand producing nanobubble generators to meet the requirements of large-scale irrigation. Field trials were undertaken, to quantify the increase in plant and crop growth through irrigation with oxygen nanobubbles. The results showed a marked increase in root mass and crop growth, supporting the viability and development of a nanobubble generator. The purpose to this thesis is to provide the research, testing and development of nanobubble tubes leading to a commercially viable, scalable nanobubble generator. Research was carried out to provide an understanding of the science behind nanobubbles. Applying this knowledge to the iterative process of design, print, test and evaluate, allowed comparisons to be made for various tube designs and allowed one design to be selected and taken forward for commercial development. Test results show that the optimum tube design, in terms of performance, is a compromise between the dissolved oxygen readings taken from the product water and the head loss across the nanobubble tube. The results also showed that smaller multiple tube arrangements out-performed large-scale single tubes. This led to a patent application for a multi-tube design. This thesis describes the 3-D printing of nanobubble tubes, nanobubble generators and current commercial installations under evaluation. The thesis concludes by discussing future development opportunities for the nanobubble generator.