Suchergebnisse

Not Available ; The land resource inventory of Kallenahalli Microwatershed was conducted using village cadastral maps and IRS satellite imagery on 1:7920 scale. The false color composites of IRS imagery were interpreted for Physiography and the physiographic delineations were used as base for mapping soils. The soils were studied in several transects and a soil map was prepared with phases of soil series as mapping units. Random checks were made all over the area outside the transects to confirm and validate the soil map unit boundaries. The soil map shows the geographic distribution and extent, characteristics, classification, behavior and use potentials of the soils in the microwatershed. The present study covers an area of 622 ha in Chikkanayakanahalli taluk of Tumkur district, Karnataka. The climate is semiarid and categorized as drought-prone with an average annual rainfall of 700 mm, of which about 378 mm is received during south –west monsoon, 179 mm during north-east and the remaining 143 mm during the rest of the year. An area of about 85 per cent is covered by soils, 6 per cent by rock out crops and 9 per cent by others. The salient findings from the land resource inventory are summarized briefly below.  The soils belong to 15 soil series and 29 soil phases (management units) and eight land use classes.  The length of crop growing period is about 120-150 days starting from 2nd week of July to 3rd week of November.  From the master soil map, several interpretative and thematic maps like land capability, soil depth, surface soil texture, soil gravelliness, available water capacity, soil slope and soil erosion were generated.  Soil fertility status maps for macro and micronutrients were generated based on the surface soil samples collected at every 250 m grid interval.  Land suitability for growing 34 major agricultural and horticultural crops were assessed and maps showing the degree of suitability along with constraints were generated.  An area of about 85 per cent in the microwatershed is suitable for agriculture and six per cent not suitable for agriculture.  About 23 per cent of the soils are deep (100-150 cm) to very deep (>150 cm), 43 per cent moderately deep (75-100cm) and 19 per cent moderately shallow to shallow (25-75%) soils.  About 14 per cent of the area has clayey soils, less than one per cent sandy soils and 77 per cent loamy soils at the surface.  About 20 per cent of the area has non-gravelly soils, 35 per cent gravelly (15-35%) and 36 per cent very gravelly to extremely gravelly (35-80%) soils.  About 75 per cent has soils that are very low (57 kg/ha) in available phosphorus.  About 47 per cent of the soils are low (10 ppm) in about 30 per cent area, low (0.6 ppm) in about 79 per cent area and deficient (<0.6 ppm) in 6 per cent area.  The land suitability for 34 major crops grown in the microwatershed were assessed and the areas that are highly suitable (S1) and moderately suitable (S2) are given below. It is however to be noted that a given soil may be suitable for various crops but what specific crop to be grown may be decided by the farmer looking to his capacity to invest on various inputs, marketing infrastructure, market price and finally the demand and supply position. Land suitability for various crops in the Kallenahalli Microwatershed Crop Suitability Area in ha (%) Crop Suitability Area in ha (%) Highly suitable (S1) Moderately suitable (S2) Highly suitable (S1) Moderately suitable (S2) Sorghum 47 (7) 316 (12) Guava 25 (4) 313 (50) Fodder Sorghum 47 (7) 316 (12) Pomegranate 25 (4) 311 (50) Maize 47 (7) 279 (45) Banana 25 (4) 311 (50) Upland paddy 47 (7) 316 (12) Jackfruit 25 (4) 274 (44) Finger millet 47 (7) 279 (45) Jamun 15 (2) 71 (11) Redgram 47 (7) 316 (12) Musambi 25 (4) 311 (50) Horse gram 73 (12) 329 (53) Lime 25 (4) 311 (50) Field bean 47 (7) 316 (12) Cashew 25 (4) 313 (50) Cowpea 47 (7) 316 (12) Custard apple 70 (13) 366 (59) Groundnut 36 (6) 306 (49) Amla 70 (13) 366 (59) Sunflower 25 (4) 311 (50) Tamarind 15 (2) 71 (11) Onion 47 (7) 316 (12) Marigold 47 (7) 316 (12) Chilli 47 (7) 316 (12) Chrysanthemum 47 (7) 316 (12) Brinjal 47 (7) 316 (12) Jasmine 47 (7) 316 (12) Tomato 47 (7) 316 (12) Coconut 25 (4) 274 (44) Mango 15 (2) 34 (5) Arecanut 25 (4) 274 (44) Sapota 25 (4) 274 (44) Mulberry 15 (2) (3201) Apart from the individual crop suitability, a proposed crop plan has been prepared for the 8 identified LUCs by considering only the highly and moderately suitable lands for different crops and cropping systems with food, fodder, fibre and horticulture crops that helps in maintaining productivity and ecological balance in the microwatershed.  Maintaining soil-health is vital to crop production and conserve soil and land resource base for maintaining ecological balance and to mitigate climate change. For this, several ameliorative measures have been suggested to these problematic soils like saline/alkali, highly eroded, sandy soils etc.  Soil and water conservation treatment plan has been prepared that would help in identifying the sites to be treated and also the type of structures required.  As part of the greening programme, several tree species have been suggested to be planted in marginal and submarginal lands, field bunds and also in the hillocks, mounds and ridges that would help in supplementing the farm income, provide fodder, fuel and generate lot of biomass. This helps in maintaining ecological balance and contributes to mitigating the climate change. Baseline socioeconomic characterisation is prerequisite to prepare action plan for program implementation and to assess the project performance before making any changes in the watershed development program. The baseline provides appropriate policy direction for enhancing productivity and sustainability in agriculture. Methodology: Kallenahalli micro-watershed (Anekatte sub-watershed, Chikkanayakanahalli taluk, Tumkur district) is located in between 13021' – 13023' North latitudes and 76036' – 76039' East longitudes, covering an area of about 476.20 ha, bounded by Kadenahalli, Dabbegatta, Tharabenahalli, Jayachamarajapura and Bairaganahalli villages with length of growing period (LGP) 120-150 days. We used soil resource map as basis for sampling farm households to test the hypothesis that soil quality influence crop selection, and conservation investment of farm households. The level of technology adoption and productivity gaps and livelihood patterns were analyses. The cost of soil degradation and ecosystem services were quantified Results: The socio-economic outputs for the Kallenahalli Microwatershed (Anekatte subwatershed, Chikkanayakanahalli taluk, Tumkur district) are presented here. Social Indicators;  Male and female ratio is 51.1 to 48.9 per cent to the total sample population.  Younger age 18 to 50 years group of population is around 61.7 per cent to the total population.  Literacy population is around 93.6 per cent.  Social groups belong to other backward caste (OBC) is around 50 per cent.  Liquefied petroleum gas is the source of energy for a cooking among all the households.  About 60 per cent of households have a yashaswini health card.  Among all farm households are having MGNREGA card for rural employment.  Dependence on ration cards for food grains through public distribution system is around 80 per cent.  Swach bharath program providing closed toilet facilities around 50 per cent of sample households.  Institutional participation is only 17.02 per cent of sample households.  Women participation in decisions making for agriculture production is among all households were found. 2 Economic Indicators;  The average land holding is 1.0 ha indicates that majority of farm households are belong to small and medium farmers. The dry land of 72.9 % and irrigated land 27.1 % of total cultivated land area among the sample farmers.  Agriculture is the main occupation among 12.2 per cent and agriculture is the main and agriculture labour is a subsidiary occupation for 69.22 per cent of sample households.  The average value of domestic assets is around Rs. 8713 per household. Mobile and television are popular media. mass communication  The average value of farm assets is around Rs. 104892 per household, about 20 per cent of sample farmers having plough and sprayer.  The average value of livestock is around Rs. 15043 per household; about 84.2 per cent of household are having livestock.  The average per capita food consumption is around 541 grams (1270.48 kilo calories) against national institute of nutrition (NIN) recommendation at 827 gram. Around 100 per cent of sample households are consuming less than the NIN recommendation.  The annual average total income is around Rs. 52493 per household. Among all sample farm households are above poverty line.  The per capita average monthly expenditure is around Rs. 832. Environmental Indicators-Ecosystem Services;  The value of ecosystem service helps to support investment to decision on soil and water conservation and in promoting sustainable land use.  The onsite cost of different soil nutrients lost due to soil erosion is around Rs. 1028 per ha/year. The total cost of annual soil nutrients is around Rs. 544845 per year for the total area of 476.20 ha.  The average value of ecosystem service for food grain production is around Rs. 2571/ ha/year. Per hectare food grain production services is maximum in redgram (Rs. 9120) followed by ragi (Rs. 5018), green gram (Rs. 3265) and coconut crop is negative returns.  The average value of ecosystem service for fodder production is around Rs. 2140/ ha/year. Per hectare fodder production services is ragi (Rs. 2675).  The data on water requirement for producing one quintal of grain is considered for estimating the total value of water required for crop production. The per hectare value of water used and value of water was maximum in coconut (Rs. 193554) followed by green gram (Rs. 41255), red gram (Rs. 53787) and ragi (Rs. 13638). 3 Economic Land Evaluation;  The major cropping pattern is ragi (41.6 %) followed by coconut (28.9 %), green gram (9.7 %), bajra (12.1 %) and redgram (7.7 %).  In Kallenahalli micro-watershed, major soil is Kaggalipura (KGP) series is having shallow soil depth cover around 2.2 % of area. On this soil farmers are presently growing greengram (86.8 %), ragi (13.2 %). Chikkasavanur (CSR) are also having shallow soil depth cover 1.37 % of area, the crops are coconut. Lakkur (LKR) soil series having moderately shallow soil depth cover around 7.65 % of areas, crops are ragi (50.0 %) and redgram (50.0 %). Hooradhahalli (HDH) soil series having moderately deep soil depth cover around 38.61 % of area, crops are coconut (41.6), green gram (8.8 %) and ragi (49.5 %). Thondigere (TDG) soil series are having moderately deep soil depth cover around 5.9 % of area the major crops grown are coconut.  The total cost of cultivation and benefit cost ratio (BCR) in study area coconut ranges between Rs.147172/ha in TDG soil (with BCR of 1.31) and Rs.43488/ha in HDH soil (with BCR of 1.09).  In ragi cost of cultivation range between Rs 57625/ha in KGP soil (with BCR of 1.09) and Rs.21639/ha in LKR soil (with BCR of 1.35).  In greengram cost of cultivation range between Rs. 25339/ha in KGP soil (with BCR of 1.15) and Rs. 17487/ha in HDH soil (with BCR of 1.08).  In redgram the cost of cultivation in LKR soil is Rs. 32376/ha (with BCR of 1.28).  The land management practices reported by the farmers are crop rotation, tillage practices, fertilizer application and use of farm yard manure (FYM). Due to higher wages farmer are following labour saving strategies is not prating soil and water conservation measures. Less ownership of livestock limiting application of FYM.  It was observed soil quality influences on the type and intensity of land use. More fertilizer applications in deeper soil to maximize returns. Suggestions;  Involving farmers is watershed planning helps in strengthing institutional participation.  The per capita food consumption and monthly income is very low. Diversifying income generation activities from crop and livestock production in order to reduce risk related to drought and market prices.  Majority of farmers reported that they are not getting timely support/extension services from the concerned development departments.  By strengthing agricultural extension for providing timely advice improved technology there is scope to increase in net income of farm households. 4  By adopting recommended package of practices by following the soil test fertiliser recommendation, there is scope to increase yield in coconut (46.5 to 71.1 %), ragi (42.2 to 75.7 %), red gram (19 %) and green gram (32.5 to 34.8 %). ; Watershed Development Department, Government of Karnataka (World Bank Funded) Sujala –III Project

Not Available ; The land resource inventory of Kurubarahalli Microwatershed was conducted using village cadastral maps and IRS satellite imagery on 1:7920 scale. The false colour composites of IRS imagery were interpreted for physiography and the physiographic delineations were used as base for mapping soils. The soils were studied in several transects and a soil map was prepared with phases of soil series as mapping units. Random checks were made all over the area outside the transects to confirm and validate the soil map unit boundries. The soil map shows the geographic distribution and extent, characterstics, classification, behaviour and use potentials of the soils in the microwartershed. The present study covers an area of 645 ha in Chikkanayakanahalli taluk of Tumkuru district, Karnataka. The climate is semiarid and categorized as drought-prone with an average annual rainfall of 700 mm, of which about 378 mm is received during south –west monsoon, 179 mm during north-east and the remaining 143 mm during the rest of the year. An area of about 81 per cent is covered by soils and five per cent by rock lands and 14 per cent by habitations and waterbodies. The salient findings from the land resource inventory are summarized briefly below.  The soils belong to 10 soil series and 21 soil phases (management units) and 5 land use classes.  The length of crop growing period is about 120-150 days starting from 2nd week of August to 3rd week of November.  From the master soil map, several interpretative and thematic maps like land capability, soil depth, surface soil texture, soil gravelliness, available water capacity, soil slope and soil erosion were generated.  Soil fertility status maps for macro and micronutrients were generated based on the surface soil samples collected at every 250 m grid interval.  Land suitability for growing 34 major agricultural and horticultural crops were assessed and maps showing the degree of suitability along with constraints were generated.  About 81 per cent area in the microwatershed is suitable for agriculture.  About 51 per cent of the soils are deep (100-150 cm) to very deep (>150 cm), 14 per cent moderately deep and 16 per cent moderately shallow.  About 35 per cent of the area has clayey soils at the surface and 46 per cent loamy soils.  About 26 per cent of the area has non-gravelly (200 mm/m).  About 59 per cent of the area has very gently sloping (1-3% slope) lands and 22 per cent gently sloping (3-5%).  An area of about 36 per cent has soils that are slightly eroded (e1), 36 per cent moderately eroded (e2) and 9 per cent severely eroded (e4) soils.  An area of about 35 per cent has soils that are slightly acid (pH 5.0-6.5) to moderately acid, 11 per cent strongly acid (pH 5.0-5.5), 30 per cent neutral (pH 6.5-7.3) and 6 per cent slightly alkaline in soil reaction.  The Electrical Conductivity (EC) of the soils are dominantly 57 kg/ha) in available phosphorus content.  About 17 per cent of the soils are low (337 kg/ha) in available potassium content.  Available sulphur is high (>10 ppm) in about 18 per cent area, medium (10-20 ppm) in about 50 per cent area and low (4.5 ppm) in available iron.  Available manganese, copper and zinc are sufficient in all the soils of the microwatershed.  The land suitability for 34 major crops grown in the microwatershed were assessed and the areas that are highly suitable (S1) and moderately suitable (S2) are given below. It is however to be noted that a given soil may be suitable for various crops but what specific crop to be grown may be decided by the farmer looking to his capacity to invest on various inputs, marketing infrastructure, market price and finally the demand and supply position. Land suitability for various crops in the Microwatershed Crop Suitability Area in ha (%) Crop Suitability Area in ha (%) Highly suitable (S1) Moderately suitable (S2) Highly suitable (S1) Moderately suitable (S2) Sorghum 37 (6) 256 (40) Guava 25 (4) 258 (40) Fodder Sorghum 37 (6) 256 (40) Pomogranate 25 (4) 240 (37) Maize 37 (6) 171 (27) Banana 25 (4) 240 (37) Upland paddy 37 (6) 356 (55) Jackfruit 25 (4) 155 (24) Finger millet 37 (6) 271 (42) Jamun 25 (4) 198 (31) Redgram 37 (6) 256 (40) Musambi 25 (4) 240 (37) Horse gram 37 (6) 385 (60) Lime 25 (4) 240 (37) Field bean 37 (6) 256 (40) Cashew 25 (4) 258 (40) Cowpea 37 (6) 256 (40) Custard apple 37 (6) 459 (71) Groundnut 37 (6) 374 (58) Amla 37 (6) 385 (60) Sunflower 25 (4) 240 (37) Tamarind 25 (4) 198 (31) Onion 37 (6) 176 (27) Marigold 37 (6) 256 (40) Chilli 37 (6) 256 (40) Chrysanthemum 37 (6) 256 (40) Brinjal 37 (6) 256 (40) Jasmine 37 (6) 176 (27) Tomato 37 (6) 256 (40) Coconut 25 (4) 155 (24) Mango 25 (4) 113 (17) Arecanut 25 (4) 155 (24) Sapota 25 (4) 155 (24) Mulberry 25 (4) (3088) Apart from the individual crop suitability, a proposed crop plan has been prepared for the 5 identified LUCs by considering only the highly and moderately suitable lands for different crops and cropping systems with food, fodder, fibre and horticulture crops that helps in maintaining productivity and ecological balance in the microwatershed.  Maintaining soil-health is vital to crop production and conserve soil and land resource base for maintaining ecological balance and to mitigate climate change. For this, several ameliorative measures have been suggested to these problematic soils like saline/alkali, highly eroded, sandy soils etc.  Soil and water conservation treatment plan has been prepared that would help in identifying the sites to be treated and also the type of structures required.  As part of the greening programme, several tree species have been suggested to be planted in marginal and submarginal lands, field bunds and also in the hillocks, mounds and ridges that would help in supplementing the farm income, provide fodder and fuel and generate lot of biomass. This helps in maintaining ecological balance and contribute to mitigating climate change. Baseline socioeconomic characterisation is prerequisite to prepare action plan for program implementation and to assess the project performance before making any changes in the watershed development program. The baseline provides appropriate policy direction for enhancing productivity and sustainability in agriculture. Methodology: Kurubarahalli Micro-watershed (Anekatte sub-watershed, Chikkanayakanahalli taluk, Tumkur district) is located in between 13023' – 13025' North latitudes and 76035' – 76037' East longitudes, covering an area of about 645.29 ha, bounded by Kedhigehalli, Marasandra, Chikkanahalli, Chikkanayakanahalli, Dugudihalli, Dabbekatta and Jogihalli villages with length of growing period (LGP) 120-150 days.We used soil resource map as basis for sampling farm households to test the hypothesis that soil quality influence crop selection, and conservation investment of farm households. The level of technology adoption and productivity gaps and livelihood patterns were analyses. The cost of soil degradation and ecosystem services were quantified. Results: The socio-economic outputs for the Kurubarahalli Microwatershed (Anekatte sub-watershed, Chikkanayakanahalli taluk, Tumkur district) are presented here. Social Indicators;  Male and female ratio is 57.4 to 42.6 per cent to the total sample population.  Younger age 18 to 50 years group of population is around 51.1 per cent to the total population.  Literacy population is around 80.9 per cent.  Social groups belong to other backward caste (OBC) is around 50 per cent.  Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is the source of energy for a cooking among all sample households.  About 66.6 per cent of households have a yashaswini health card.  Majority of farm households (50 %) are having MGNREGA card for rural employment.  Dependence on ration cards for food grains through public distribution system is around 80 per cent.  Swach bharath program providing closed toilet facilities around 90 per cent of sample households.  Institutional participation is only 2.1 per cent of sample households.  Women participation in decisions making are around 36 per cent of households were found. 2 Economic Indicators;  The average land holding is 0.44 ha indicates that majority of farm households are belong to marginal farmers. The dry land account for 90.9 % and irrigated land 9.1 % of total cultivated land area among the sample farmers.  Agriculture is the main occupation among 63.8 per cent and agriculture is the main and non agriculture labour is subsidiary occupation for 30.5 per cent of sample households.  The average value of domestic assets is around Rs.14420 per household. Mobile and Mixer/grinder are popular media mass communication.  The average value of farm assets is around Rs.1004 per household, about 70 per cent of sample farmers own plough.  The average value of livestock is around Rs.22810 per household; about 79 per cent of household are having livestock.  The average per capita food consumption is around 694.5 grams (1481.6 kilo calories) against national institute of nutrition (NIN) recommendation at 827.7 gram. Around 90 per cent of sample households are consuming less than the NIN recommendation.  The annual average income is around Rs. 25543 per household. Above 90 per cent of farm households are below poverty line.  The per capita average monthly expenditure is around Rs.1228. Environmental Indicators-Ecosystem Services;  The value of ecosystem service helps to support investment to decision on soil and water conservation and in promoting sustainable land use.  The onsite cost of different soil nutrients lost due to soil erosion is around Rs. 790 per ha/year. The total cost of annual soil nutrients is around Rs. 411588 per year for the total area of 445.72 ha.  The average value of ecosystem service for food grain production is around Rs 28081/ ha/year. Per hectare food grain production services is maximum in coconut (Rs. 74436) followed by ragi (Rs. 6316) and green gram (Rs. 3490).  The average value of ecosystem service for fodder production is around Rs. 3647/ ha/year. Per hectare fodder production services is maximum in maize (Rs. 5325) followed by ragi (Rs. 1968).  The data on water requirement for producing one quintal of grain is considered for estimating the total value of water required for crop production. The per hectare value of water used and value of water was maximum in coconut (Rs. 265476) followed by green gram (Rs. 43584) and ragi (Rs. 13608). 3 Economic Land Evaluation;  The major cropping pattern ragi (50.2 %) followed by green gram (45.2 %) and coconut (4.6 %).  In Kurubarahalli Microwatershed, major soil is Kutegoudanahundi (KGH) series is having moderately shallow soil depth cover around 50 % of area. On this soil farmers are presently growing green gram (50 %) and ragi (4.56 %), soils of Bidanagere (BDG) are also having moderately deep soil depth cover 7.84 % of area, the crops are green gram (50 %) and ragi (50 %). Balapur (BPR) soil series having deep soil depth cover around 16.05 % of areas, crops are green gram (44.5 %) and ragi (55.5 %). Lakshmanagudda (LGD) soil series having deep soil depth cover around 12.37 % of area, crops are coconut (16.7 %), green gram (33.3 %) and ragi (50 %).  The cost of cultivation and benefit cost ratio (BCR) of ragi range between Rs.60787/ha in BDG soil (with BCR of 1.06) and Rs 12124/ha in LDG soil (with BCR of 1.87).  In green gram the cost of cultivation ranges between Rs.54821/ha in BDG soil (with BCR of 1.13) and Rs. 16307/ha in LGD soil (with BCR of 1.88).  In coconut the cost of cultivation in LGD soil is Rs 44124/ha (with BCR of 2.69).  The land management practices reported by the farmers are crop rotation, tillage practices, fertilizer application and use of farm yard manure (FYM). Due to higher wages farmer are following labour saving strategies is not prating soil and water conservation measures. Less ownership of livestock limiting application of FYM.  It was observed soil quality influences on the type and intensity of land use. More fertilizer applications in deeper soil to maximize returns. Suggestions;  Involving farmers is watershed planning helps in strengthing institutional participation.  The per capita food consumption and monthly income is very low. Diversifying income generation activities from crop and livestock production in order to reduce risk related to drought and market prices.  Majority of farmers reported that they are not getting timely support/extension services from the concerned development departments.  By strengthing agricultural extension for providing timely advice improved technology there is scope to increase in net income of farm households.  By adopting recommended package of practices by following the soil test fertiliser recommendation, there is scope to increase yield in ragi (71.7 to 30.6 %), green gram (42.2 to 27.4 %), and coconut (45.8 %). ; Watershed Development Department, Government of Karnataka (World Bank Funded) Sujala –III Project

Not Available ; The land resource inventory of Marasandra Microwatershed was conducted using village cadastral maps and IRS satellite imagery on 1:7920 scale. The false colour composites of IRS imagery were interpreted for physiography and the physiographic delineations were used as base for mapping soils. The soils were studied in several transects and a soil map was prepared with phases of soil series as mapping units. Random checks were made all over the area outside the transects to confirm and validate the soil map unit boundries. The soil map shows the geographic distribution and extent, characterstics, classification, behaviour and use potentials of the soils in the microwartershed. The present study covers an area of 615 ha in Chikkanayakanahalli taluk of Tumkur district, Karnataka. The climate is semiarid and categorized as drought-prone with an average annual rainfall of 700 mm, of which about 378 mm is received during south –west monsoon, 179 mm during north-east and the remaining 143 mm during the rest of the year. An area of about 82 per cent is covered by soils and eighteen per cent by rock outcrops and others. The salient findings from the land resource inventory are summarized briefly below.  The soils belong to 10 soil series and 23 soil phases (management units) and 5 land use classes.  The length of crop growing period is about 120-150 days starting from 2nd week of July to 3rd week of November.  From the master soil map, several interpretative and thematic maps like land capability, soil depth, surface soil texture, soil gravelliness, available water capacity, soil slope and soil erosion were generated.  Soil fertility status maps for macro and micronutrients were generated based on the surface soil samples collected at every 250 m grid interval.  Land suitability for growing 34 major agricultural and horticultural crops were assessed and maps showing the degree of suitability along with constraints were generated.  About 82 per cent area in the microwatershed is suitable for agriculture.  About 38 per cent of the soils are deep (100-150 cm), 33 per cent moderately deep and 12 per cent moderately shallow in soil depth.  About 30 per cent of the area has clayey soils at the surface and 55 per cent loamy soils.  About 18 per cent of the area has non-gravelly (1 per cent medium (101-150 mm/m) and about 6 per cent high (>200 mm/m) in available water capacity.  About 79 per cent of the area has nearly level (0-1%) to very gently sloping (1-3% slope) lands and 3 per cent gently sloping (3-5%).  An area of about 41 per cent has soils that are nil to slightly eroded (e1) and 45 per cent moderately eroded (e2).  An area of about 29 per cent has soils that are slightly acid (pH 5.0-6.5) to moderately acid, 19 per cent is strongly acid (ph 5.0-5.5), 15 per cent neutral (pH 6.5-7.3) and 20 per cent slightly to moderately alkaline in soil reaction.  The Electrical Conductivity (EC) of the soils are dominantly 57 kg/ha) in available phosphorus.  About 28 per cent of the soils are low (337 kg/ha) in available potassium.  Available sulphur is high (>10 ppm) in about 14 per cent area and medium (10- 20 ppm) in about 67 per cent and low (0.6 ppm) in 77 per cent and deficiant (1) 358 (58) Fodder Sorghum 88 (14) 166 (27) Pomogranate 1 (>1) 203 (33) Maize 49 (8) 170 (28) Banana 1 (>1) 203 (33) Upland paddy 49 (8) 222 (36) Jackfruit 1 (>1) 164 (27) Finger millet 49 (8) 183 (30) Jamun 1 (>1) 39 (6) Redgram 49 (8) 209 (34) Musambi 40 (6) 164 (27) Horse gram 138 (22) 327 (53) Lime 40 (6) 164 (27) Field bean 49 (8) 209 (34) Cashew 1 (>1) 358 (58) Cowpea 88 (14) 170 (28) Custard apple 88 (14) 395 (64) Groundnut 49 (8) 377 (61) Amla 88 (14) 395 (64) Sunflower 40 (6) 164 (27) Tamarind 1 (>1) 39 (6) Onion 49 (8) 170 (28) Marigold 88 (14) 170 (28) Chilli 88 (14) 170 (28) Chrysanthemum 88 (14) 170 (28) Brinjal 88 (14) 170 (28) Jasmine 49 (8) 209 (34) Tomato 88 (14) 170 (28) Coconut 1 (>1) 164 (27) Mango 1 (>1%) - Arecanut 1 (>1) 164 (27) Sapota 1 (>1%) 164 (27) Mulberry 1 (>1) (3710) Apart from the individual crop suitability, a proposed crop plan has been prepared for the 5 identified LUCs by considering only the highly and moderately suitable lands for different crops and cropping systems with food, fodder fibre and horticulture crops that helps in maintaining productivity and ecological balance in the microwatershed.  Maintaining soil-health is vital to crop production and conserve soil and land resource base for maintaining ecological balance and to mitigate climate change. For this, several ameliorative measures have been suggested to these problematic soils like saline/alkali, highly eroded, sandy soils etc.  Soil and water conservation treatment plan has been prepared that would help in identifying the sites to be treated and also the type of structures required.  As part of the greening programme, several tree species have been suggested to be planted in marginal and submarginal lands, field bunds and also in the hillocks, mounds and ridges that would help in supplementing the farm income, provide fodder and fuel and generate lot of biomass. This helps in maintaining ecological balance and contribute to mitigating climate change. Baseline socioeconomic characterisation is prerequisite to prepare action plan for program implementation and to assess the project performance before making any changes in the watershed development program. The baseline provides appropriate policy direction for enhancing productivity and sustainability in agriculture. Methodology: Marasandra micro-watershed (Anekatte sub-watershed, Chikkanayakanahalli taluk, Tumkur district) is located in between 13024' – 13026' North latitudes and 76034' – 76037' East longitudes, covering an area of about 615.06 ha, bounded by Navule, Karehalli, Shavashettyhalli and Marasandra villages. with length of growing period (LGP) 120-150 days. We used soil resource map as basis for sampling farm households to test the hypothesis that soil quality influence crop selection, and conservation investment of farm households. The level of technology adoption and productivity gaps and livelihood patterns were analyses. The cost of soil degradation and eco system services were quantified. Results: The socio-economic outputs for the Marasandra micro-watershed (Anekatte subwatershed, Chikkanayakanahalli taluk, Tumkur district) are presented here. Social Indicators;  Male and female ratio is 47.6 to 52.4 Per cent to the total sample population.  Younger age 18 to 50 years group of population is 52.3 around per cent to the total population.  Literacy population is around 76.2 per cent.  Social groups belong to scheduled caste (SC) 30 percent and general caste around 40 percent.  Fire wood is the source of energy for a cooking among10 per cent.  About 60 per cent of households have a yashaswini health card.  Farm households are having MGNREGA card around 60 per cent for rural employment.  Dependence on ration cards for food grains through public distribution system is about 90 percent of farm households.  Swach bharath program providing closed toilet facilities around 80 per cent of sample households Economic Indicators;  The average land holding is 0.23 ha indicates that majority of farm households are belonging to marginal and small farmers. The irrigated is around 82.5 per 2 cent and 17.5 per cent of rainfed land is the total cultivated land area among the sample farmers.  Agriculture is the main occupation among 4.76 per cent and agriculture is the main and agriculture labour is subsidiary occupation for 66.67 per cent of the sample households.  The average value of domestic assets is around Rs.11115 per household. Mobile and television are popular media mass communication.  The average value of farm assets is around Rs. 6917 per household; about 30 per cent of sample farmers having bullock cart and plough.  The average value of livestock is around Rs. 26188 per household; about 66.6 per cent of household are having livestock.  The average per capita food consumption is around 598 grams (1382 kilo calories) against national institute of nutrition (NIN) recommendation at 827 gram. Among all sample households are consuming less than the NIN recommendation.  The annual average income is around Rs. 24909 per household. About 10 per cent of farm households are below poverty line.  The per capita average monthly expenditure is around Rs.1426. Environmental Indicators-Ecosystem Services;  The value of ecosystem service helps to support investment to decision on soil and water conservation and in promoting sustainable land use.  The onsite cost of different soil nutrients lost due to soil erosion is around Rs.574 per ha/year. The total cost of annual soil nutrients is around Rs. 291117 per year for the total area of 459 ha.  The average value of ecosystem service for food grain production is around Rs. 21430/ ha/year. Per hectare food grain production services is maximum in coconut (Rs. 77386) followed by ragi (Rs. 5739), green gram (Rs. 1942) and horse gram (Rs. 652).  The average value of ecosystem service for fodder production is around Rs. 3444/ ha/year. Per hectare fodder production services is maximum in horse gram (Rs. 4305) and ragi (Rs. 2582).  The data on water requirement for producing one quintal of grain is considered for estimating the total value of water required for crop production. The per hectare value of water used and value of water was maximum in bengal gram (Rs. 54585) followed by red gram (Rs. 54338), cotton (Rs. 51153) and sorghum (Rs. 40332). 3 Economic Land Evaluation;  The major cropping pattern is ragi (29.8%) followed by coconut (25.8 %), greengram (21.6 %), horse gram (13.0 %) and maize (9.9 %).  In Marasandra micro-watershed, major soil series are Kethanapura series having moderately shallow soil depth covered around 8.13. % of area. Major crops are green gram (26.4 %) and ragi (73.6 %), Hooradhahalli soils series are having moderately deep soil depth covers around 22.78% of area. on this soil farmers are presently growing horsegram (26.4 %) and ragi (79.4 %). Gatareddihal soils series are having deep soil depth covers around 6.27% of area. On this soil farmers are presently growing greengram (50 %) and horse gram (50 %). Nagalapur series are having deep soil depth covers around 6.27 % of area. Major crop is redgram. Balapur series are having deep soil depth covers around 6.27 % of area. On this soil farmers are presently growing coconut (15.1 %), greengram (39.4 %), horse gram (8.2 %) and ragi (37.4 %).  The total cost of cultivation and benefit cost ratio (BCR) in study area for greengram ranges between Rs. 67855/ha in KTP soil (with BCR of 1.10) and Rs.15223/ha in GRH soil (with BCR of 1.14).  In horse gram the cost of cultivation range between Rs. 45946 ha in HDH soil (with BCR of 0.99) and Rs. 8616/ha in GRH soil (with BCR of 2.16).  In ragi the cost of cultivation range between Rs 18738 ha in BPR soil (with BCR of 1.59) and Rs.14250/ha in KTP soil (with BCR of 1.10).  In coconut the cost of cultivation range between Rs 77621 ha in HDH soil (with BCR of 2.13) and Rs.17267/ha in NGP soil (with BCR of 6.87).  The land management practices reported by the farmers are crop rotation, tillage practices, fertilizer application and use of farm yard manure (FYM). Due to higher wages farmer are following labour saving strategies is not prating soil and water conservation measures. Less ownership of livestock limiting application of FYM.  It was observed soil quality influences on the type and intensity of land use. More fertilizer applications in deeper soil to maximize returns. Suggestions;  Involving farmers is watershed planning helps in strengthing institutional participation.  The per capita food consumption and monthly income is very low. Diversifying income generation activities from crop and livestock production in order to reduce risk related to drought and market prices.  Majority of farmers reported that they are not getting timely support/extension services from the concerned development departments. 4  By strengthing agricultural extension for providing timely advice improved technology there is scope to increase in net income of farm households.  By adopting recommended package of practices by following the soil test fertiliser recommendation, there is scope to increase yield in ragi (72 to 86.7%), horsegram gram (3.8 to 50 %), greengram (0 to 42.9 %) and coconut (35.4 to 46.4 %). ; Watershed Development Department, Government of Karnataka (World Bank Funded) Sujala –III Project

Not Available ; The land resource inventory of Nagenahalli Microwatershed was conducted using village cadastral maps and IRS satellite imagery on 1:7920 scale. The false colour composites of IRS imagery were interpreted for physiography and the physiographic delineations were used as base for mapping soils. The soils were studied in several transects and a soil map was prepared with phases of soil series as mapping units. Random checks were made all over the area outside the transects to confirm and validate the soil map unit boundries. The soil map shows the geographic distribution and extent, characterstics, classification, behaviour and use potentials of the soils in the microwartershed. The present study covers an area of 868 ha in Chikkanayakanahalli taluk of Tumkur district, Karnataka. The climate is semiarid and categorized as drought - prone with an average annual rainfall of 700 mm, of which about 378 mm is received during south –west monsoon, 179 mm during north-east and the remaining 143 mm during the rest of the year. An area of about 90 per cent is covered by soils, 10 per cent by others. The salient findings from the land resource inventory are summarized briefly below.  The soils belong to 6 soil series and 17 soil phases (management units) and 4l and use classes.  The length of crop growing period is about 150 days starting from 2ndweek of July to 3rd week of November.  From the master soil map, several interpretative and thematic maps like land capability, soil depth, surface soil texture, soil gravelliness, available water capacity, soil slope and soil erosion were generated.  Soil fertility status maps for macro and micronutrients were generated based on the surface soil samples collected at every 250 m grid interval.  Land suitability for growing 34 major agricultural and horticultural crops were assessed and maps showing the degree of suitability along with constraints were generated.  Entire area is suitable for agriculture.  About 90 per cent of the soils are deep (100-150 cm) to very deep (>150 cm).  About 34 per cent of the area has clayey soils at the surface, 50 per cent loamy and 5% sandy soils.  Entire area has non-gravelly (200 mm/m) in available water capacity.  About 90 per cent of the area has nearly level (0-1%) to very gently sloping (1-3% slope) lands.  An area of about 84 per cent has soils that are slightly eroded (e1) and 6 per cent moderately eroded (e2).  An area of about 23 per cent has soils that are slightly acid (pH 5.0-6.5) to moderately acid, 62 per cent area has neutral (pH 6.5-7.3) and 5 per cent area slightly alkaline.  The Electrical Conductivity (EC) of the soils are dominantly 57 kg/ha) and 15 per cent area is low (337 kg/ha) in available potassium.  Available sulphur is high (>10 ppm) in about 13 per cent, medium (10-20 ppm) in about 52 per cent and low (4.5 ppm) in the entire area.  Available manganese, copper and zinc are sufficient in all the soils of the microwatershed.  The land suitability for 34 major crops grown in the microwatershed were assessed and the areas that are highly suitable (S1) and moderately suitable (S2) are given below. It is however to be noted that a given soil may be suitable for various crops but what specific crop to be grown may be decided by the farmer looking to his capacity to invest on various inputs, marketing infrastructure, market price and finally the demand and supply position. Land suitability for various crops in the Microwatershed Crop Suitability Area in ha (%) Crop Suitability Area in ha (%) Highly suitable (S1) Moderately suitable (S2) Highly suitable (S1) Moderately suitable (S2) Sorghum 672 (77) 59 (7) Guava 366 (42) 365 (42) Fodder Sorghum 672 (77) 106 (12) Pomogranate 672 (77) 106 (12) Maize 283 (33) 448 (52) Banana 672 (77) 106 (12) Upland paddy 672 (77) 106 (12) Jackfruit 672 (77) 59 (7) Finger millet 672 (77) 59 (7) Jamun 672 (77) 106 (12) Redgram 672 (77) 106 (12) Musambi 672 (77) 106 (12) Horse gram 672 (77) 106 (12) Lime 672 (77) 106 (12) Field bean 672 (77) 106 (12) Cashew 366 (42) 306 (35) Cowpea 672 (77) 106 (12) Custard apple 672 (77) 106 (12) Groundnut 42 (5) 324 (37) Amla 672 (77) 106 (12) Sunflower 672 (77) 106 (12) Tamarind 672 (77) 106 (12) Onion 589 (68) 189 (22) Marigold 672 (77) 106 (12) Chilli 672 (77) 106 (12) Chrysanthemum 672 (77) 106 (12) Brinjal 672 (77) 106 (12) Jasmine 672 (77) 106 (12) Tomato 672 (77) 106 (12) Coconut 366 (42) 365 (42) Mango 672 (77) 59 (7) Arecanut 366 (42) 365 (42) Sapota 672 (77) 59 (7) Mulberry 42 (5) (5473) Apart from the individual crop suitability, a proposed crop plan has been prepared for the 4 identified LUCs by considering only the highly and moderately suitable lands for different crops and cropping systems with food, fodder, fibre and horticulture crops that helps in maintaining productivity and ecological balance in the microwatershed.  Maintaining soil-health is vital to crop production and conserve soil and land resource base for maintaining ecological balance and to mitigate climate change. For this, several ameliorative measures have been suggested to these problematic soils like saline/alkali, highly eroded, sandy soils etc.  Soil and water conservation treatment plan has been prepared that would help in identifying the sites to be treated and also the type of structures required.  As part of the greening programme, several tree species have been suggested to be planted in marginal and submarginal lands, field bunds and also in the hillocks, mounds and ridges that would help in supplementing the farm income, provide fodder and fuel and generate lot of biomass. This would help in maintaining ecological balance and contribute to mitigating climate change. Baseline socioeconomic characterisation is prerequisite to prepare action plan for program implementation and to assess the project performance before making any changes in the watershed development program. The baseline provides appropriate policy direction for enhancing productivity and sustainability in agriculture. Methodology: Nagenahalli micro-watershed (Kibbanahalli sub-watershed, Chikkanayaka- halli Taluk, Tumkur district) is located in between 13020' – 13021' North latitudes and 76036' – 76039' East longitudes, covering an area of about 867.82 ha, bounded by Bedarahalli, Baraganahalli, Aralikere, Godekere, Pankajanahalli and Halugona villages with length of growing period (LGP) 120-150 days. We used soil resource map as basis for sampling farm households to test the hypothesis that soil quality influence crop selection, and conservation investment of farm households. The level of technology adoption and productivity gaps and livelihood patterns were analyses. The cost of soil degradation and ecosystem services were quantified. Results: The socio-economic outputs for the Nagenahalli Microwatershed (Kibbanahalli sub-watershed, Chikkanayakanahalli Taluk, Tumkur district) are presented here. Social Indicators;  Male and female ratio is 50 to 50 per cent to the total sample population.  Younger age 18 to 50 years group of population is around 57 per cent to the total population.  Literacy population is around 99 per cent.  Social groups belong to general caste among all the sample households.  Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is the source of energy for a cooking among the all sample households.  About 40 per cent of households have a yashaswini health card.  Around 20 per cent of farm households are having MGNREGA card for rural employment.  Dependence on ration cards for food grains through public distribution system is around 60 per cent.  Swatch bharath program providing closed toilet facilities for among all sample households.  Institutional participation is only 15.0 per cent of sample households.  Women participation in decisions making for agriculture production among all the sample farms households. 2 Economic Indicators;  The average land holding is 0.90 ha indicates that majority of farm households are belong to marginal and small farmers. The dry land of 68.7 % and irrigated land 18.6 % of total cultivated land area among the sample farmers.  Agriculture is the main occupation among 78.3 per cent and agriculture is the main and agriculture labour is subsidiary occupation for 3.3 per cent of sample households.  The average value of domestic assets is around Rs. 9532 per household. Mobile and television are popular media mass communication.  The average value of farm assets is around Rs. 119861 per household, about 40 per cent of sample farmers having tractor and sprayer.  The average value of livestock is around Rs. 19833 per household; about 41.6 per cent of household are having livestock.  The average per capita food consumption is around 566.9 grams (1336.8 kilo calories) against national institute of nutrition (NIN) recommendation at 827 gram. Among the all sample households are consuming less than the NIN recommendation.  The annual average income is around Rs.48989 per household. About 50 per cent of farm households are below poverty line.  The per capita average monthly expenditure is around Rs.924. Environmental Indicators-Ecosystem Services;  The value of ecosystem service helps to support investment to decision on soil and water conservation and in promoting sustainable land use.  The onsite cost of different soil nutrients lost due to soil erosion is around Rs. 423 per ha/year. The total cost of annual soil nutrients is around Rs. 328783 per year for the total area of 867.8 ha.  The average value of ecosystem service for food grain production is around Rs. 43095/ ha/year. Per hectare food grain production services is maximum in areca nut (Rs. 80030) followed by coconut (Rs. 44830) and ragi (Rs. 4427).  The average value of ecosystem service for fodder production is around Rs. 3397/ ha/year is ragi.  The data on water requirement for producing one quintal of grain is considered for estimating the total value of water required for crop production. The per hectare value of water used and value of water was maximum in coconut (Rs. 331961) followed by ragi (Rs. 16258) and areca nut (Rs. 11031). 3 Economic Land Evaluation;  The major cropping pattern is coconut (65.5 %) followed by ragi (29.6 %) and areca nut (4.8 %).  In Nagenahalli micro-watershed, major soil series are Hallikere (HLK) soil series are having very deep soil depth cover around 27.7 % area. On this soil farmers are presently growing ragi. Jedigere (JDG) soil series are having deep soil depth cover around 4.86 % area; the crops are coconut (90.4 %) ragi (9.5 %). Ranatur (RTR) soils are having very deep soil depth covered around 35.2 % areas; crops are areca nut (7.4 %), coconut (69.8 %) and ragi (22.7 %). Thondigere (TDG) soils are also having very deep soil depth covered around 5.36 % of area, crops are coconut.  The total cost of cultivation and benefit cost ratio (BCR) in study area for coconut ranges between Rs.246381/ha in TDG soil (with BCR of 1.15) and Rs. 106004/ha in RTR soil (with BCR of 1.29).  In ragi the cost of cultivation ranges between 73391/ha in JDG soil (with BCR of 1.04) and Rs.33907/ha in HLK soil (with BCR of 1.14).  In areca nut the cost of cultivation Rs.147210/ha in RTR soil (with BCR of 1.54).  The land management practices reported by the farmers are crop rotation, tillage practices, fertilizer application and use of farm yard manure (FYM). Due to higher wages farmer are following labour saving strategies is not prating soil and water conservation measures. Less ownership of livestock limiting application of FYM.  It was observed soil quality influences on the type and intensity of land use. More fertilizer applications in deeper soil to maximize returns. Suggestions;  Involving farmers is watershed planning helps in strengthens institutional participation.  The per capita food consumption and monthly income is very low. Diversifying income generation activities from crop and livestock production in order to reduce risk related to drought and market prices.  Majority of farmers reported that they are not getting timely support/extension services from the concerned development departments.  By strengthens agricultural extension for providing timely advice improved technology there is scope to increase in net income of farm households.  By adopting recommended package of practices by following the soil test fertiliser recommendation, there is scope to increase yield in coconut (32.5 to 49.8 %), ragi (37.7 to 68.2 %) and areca nut (77.8 %). ; Watershed Development Department, Government of Karnataka (World Bank Funded) Sujala –III Project

Not Available ; The land resource inventory of Itakal-1 Microwatershed was conducted using village cadastral maps and IRS satellite imagery on 1:7920 scale. The false colour composites of IRS imagery were interpreted for physiography and the physiographic delineations were used as base for mapping soils. The soils were studied in several transects and a soil map was prepared with phases of soil series as mapping units. Random checks were made all over the area outside the transects to confirm and validate the soil map unit boundaries. The soil map shows the geographic distribution and extent, characteristics, classification, behavior and use potentials of the soils in the microwatershed. The present study covers an area of 540 ha in Yadgir taluk & district, Karnataka. The climate is semiarid and categorized as drought-prone with an average annual rainfall of 866 mm, of which about 652 mm is received during south-west monsoon, 138 mm during north-east and the remaining 76 mm during the rest of the year. An area of 522 ha in the microwatershed is covered by soils and about 18 ha by others (habitation and water bodies). The salient findings from the land resource inventory are summarized briefly below.  The soils belong to 7 soil series and 8 soil phases (management units) and 4 land management units.  The length of crop growing period is about 120-150 days starting from 1st week of June to 4th week of October.  From the master soil map, several interpretative and thematic maps like land capability, soil depth, surface soil texture, soil gravelliness, available water capacity, soil slope and soil erosion were generated.  Soil fertility status maps for macro and micronutrients were generated based on the surface soil samples collected at every 320 m grid interval.  Land suitability for growing 29 major agricultural and horticultural crops was assessed and maps showing the degree of suitability along with constraints were generated.  Entire area in the microwatershed is suitable for agriculture.  About 92 per cent area of the microwatershed has soils that are moderately deep to very deep (75 - >150 cm) and 4 per cent soils are moderately shallow (50-75 cm).  About 4 per cent area of the microwatershed has loamy soils and 92 per cent clayey soils.  About of 86 per cent area of the microwatershed has non gravelly (200 mm/m) in available water capacity, 20 per cent medium (101-150 mm/m) and 16 per cent area low (51-100 mm/m) in available water capacity.  An area of 13 per cent has nearly level (0-1% slope) lands and 83 per cent has very gently sloping (1-3% slope) lands of the microwatershed.  An area of about 65 per cent area is moderately (e2) eroded and 31 per cent area is slightly (e1) eroded.  An area of about 22 per cent is neutral (pH 6.5 to 7.3), 52 per cent slightly alkaline (pH 7.3 to 7.8) and 23 per cent is moderately alkaline (pH 7.8 to 8.4) in reaction.  The Electrical Conductivity (EC) of the soils in the entire cultivated area of the microwatershed is dominantly 0.75%), 57 per cent medium (0.50-0.75%) and 9 per cent is low ( 57 kg/ha) in available phosphorus.  An area 89 per cent is high (>337 kg/ha) and 8 per cent is medium (145-337 kg/ha) in available potassium of the microwatershed.  Available sulphur is low (20 ppm) 28 per cent of the microwatershed.  Available boron is low (4.5 ppm) in 60 per cent and deficient (<4.5 ppm) in 37 per cent area of the microwatershed.  Available manganese and copper are sufficient in the entire cultivated area of the microwatershed.  Available zinc is deficient (<0.6 ppm) in the entire cultivated area of the microwatershed.  The land suitability for 29 major crops grown in the microwatershed were assessed and the areas that are highly suitable (S1) and moderately suitable (S2) are given below. It is however to be noted that a given soil may be suitable for various crops but what specific crop to be grown may be decided by the farmer looking to his capacity to invest on various inputs, marketing infrastructure, market price and finally the demand and supply position. Land suitability for various crops in the Microwatershed Crop Suitability Area in ha (%) Crop Suitability Area in ha (%) Highly suitable (S1) Moderately suitable (S2) Highly suitable (S1) Moderately suitable (S2) Sorghum - 244(45) Guava - 65(12) Maize 65(12) 179(33) Sapota - 65(12) Bajra 65(12) 179(33) Pomegranate - 220(41) Groundnut 65(12) 24(4) Musambi - 220(41) Sunflower - 220(41) Lime - 220(41) Redgram - 220(41) Amla 65(12) 24(4) Bengal gram - 155(29) Cashew - - Cotton - 155(29) Jackfruit - 65(12) Chilli 65(12) 179(33) Jamun - - Tomato 65(12) 24(4) Custard apple 65(12) 179(33) Brinjal 65(12) 24(4) Tamarind - - Onion 65(12) 24(4) Mulberry - 65(12) Bhendi 65(12) 179(33) Marigold 65(12) 179(33) Drumstick - 65(12) Chrysanthemum 65(12) 179(33) Mango - -  Apart from the individual crop suitability, a proposed crop plan has been prepared for the identified LMUs by considering only the highly and moderately suitable lands for different crops and cropping systems with food, fodder, fibre and horticulture crops.  Maintaining soil-health is vital for crop production and conserve soil and land resource base for maintaining ecological balance and to mitigate climate change. For this, several ameliorative measures have been suggested to these problematic soils like saline/alkali, highly eroded, sandy soils etc.,  Soil and water conservation treatment plan has been prepared that would help in identifying the sites to be treated and also the type of structures required.  As part of the greening programme, several tree species have been suggested to be planted in marginal and sub marginal lands, field bunds and also in the hillocks, mounds and ridges. This would help in not only supplementing the farm income but also provide fodder and fuel and generate lot of biomass which would help in maintaining an ecological balance and also contribute to mitigating the climate change. FINDINGS OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SURVEY  The survey was conducted in Itakal-1 is located at North latitude 160 54' 13.021" and 160 53' 26.25" and East longitude 770 24' 24.188'' and 770 23' 10.84" covering an area of about 118.39 ha coming under Gurumitkal village of Yadagiri taluk.  Socio-economic analysis of Itakal-1 micro watersheds of Mothakapalli subwatershed, Yadgiri taluk & District indicated that, out of the total sample of 35 farmers were sampled in Itakal-1 micro-watershed among households surveyed 21 (60.00%) were marginal, 4 (11.43%) were small, 3 (8.57 %) were semi medium and 2 (5.71 %) were medium farmers. 5 landless farmers were also interviewed for the survey.  The population characteristics of households indicated that, there were 107 (62.21%) men and 65 (37.79 %) were women. The average population of landless was 6.2, marginal farmers were 4.7, small farmers were 5, semi medium farmers were 4.3 and medium farmers were 4.5.  Majority of the respondents (40.12%) were in the age group of 16-35 years.  Education level of the sample households indicated that, there were 24.42 per cent illiterates, 0.58 percent were functional literates, 70.36 per cent pre university education and 7.56 per cent attained graduation.  About, 80.00 per cent of household heads practicing agriculture.  Agriculture was the major occupation for 47.67 per cent of the household members.  In the study area, 40.00 per cent of the households possess katcha house and 57.14 per cent possess pucca house.  The durable assets owned by the households showed that, 80.00 per cent possess TV, 42.86 per cent possess mixer grinder, 91.43 per cent possess mobile phones and 54.29 per cent possess motor cycles.  Farm implements owned by the households indicated that, 37.14 per cent of the households possess plough, 5.71 per cent possess tractor, 14.29 per cent possess bullock cart and 20.00 per cent possess sprayer.  Regarding livestock possession by the households, 5.71 per cent possess local cow and 5.71 per cent possess buffalo.  The average labour availability in the study area showed that, own labour men available in the micro watershed was 1.54, women available in the micro watershed was 1.03, hired labour (men) available was 5.14 and hired labour (women) available was 8.86.  Further, 25.71 per cent of the households opined that hired labour was inadequate during the agricultural season. 2  Out of the total land holding of the sample respondents 80.49 per cent (29.68 ha) of the area is under dry condition and the remaining 19.51 per cent area is irrigated land.  There were 3.00 live bore wells and 3.00 dry bore wells among the sampled households.  Bore well was the major source of irrigation for 14.29 per cent of the households.  The major crops grown by sample farmers are Red gram, Groundnut, Cotton, Jowar and Paddy and cropping intensity was recorded as 100.00 per cent.  Out of the sample households 97.14 percent possessed bank account and 14.29 per cent of them have savings in the account.  About 102.86 per cent of the respondents borrowed credit from various sources.  Among the credit borrowed by households, 40.00 per cent have borrowed loan from commercial banks and 30.00 per cent from co-operative/Grameena bank.  Majority of the respondents (90.00%) have borrowed loan for agriculture purpose.  Regarding the opinion on institutional sources of credit, 54.55 per cent of the households opined that credit helped to perform timely agricultural operations, while, only 36.36 per cent respondents opined that loan amount was adequate to fulfil their requirement.  The per hectare cost of cultivation for Red gram, Groundnut, Cotton, Jowar and Paddy was Rs.43067.31, 90445.62, 39213.13, 139598.90 and 48958.89 with benefit cost ratio of 1:1.62, 1: 1.29, 1: 1.96, 1: 1.90 and 1:0.80 respectively.  Further, 14.29 per cent of the households opined that dry fodder was adequate and 2.86 per cent of the households have opined that the green fodder was adequate.  The average annual gross income of the farmers was Rs. 137397.14 in microwatershed, of which Rs. 49711.43 comes from agriculture.  Sampled households have grown 46 horticulture trees and 14 forestry trees together in the fields and back yards.  About 8.57 per cent of the households shown interest to cultivate horticultural crops.  Households have an average investment capacity of Rs. 7571.43 for land development and Rs. 2857.14 for irrigation facility.  Source of funds for additional investment is concerned, 42.86 per cent depends on own funds and 5.71 per cent depends on bank loan for land development activities.  Regarding marketing channels, 82.86 per cent of the households have sold agricultural produce to the local/village merchants, while, 2.86 per cent have sold in regulated markets. 3  Further, 62.86 per cent of the households have used tractor for the transport of agriculture commodity.  Majority of the farmers (60.00%) have experienced soil and water erosion problems in the watershed and 71.43 per cent of the households were interested towards soil testing.  Fire was the major source of fuel for domestic use for 57.14 per cent of the households and 54.29 per cent households has LPG connection.  Piped supply was the major source for drinking water for 94.29 per cent of the households.  Electricity was the major source of light for 100.00 per cent of the households.  In the study area, 22.86 per cent of the households possess toilet facility.  Regarding possession of PDS card, 94.29 per cent of the households possessed BPL card, 5.71 per cent of the household's possessed APL card.  Households opined that, the requirement of cereals (80.00%), pulses (37.14%) and oilseeds (40.00%) are adequate for consumption.  Farming constraints experienced by households in the micro watersheds were lower fertility status of the soil (77.14%) wild animal menace on farm field (68.57%), frequent incidence of pest and diseases (68.57%), inadequacy of irrigation water (68.57%), high cost of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals (68.57%), high rate of interest on credit (80.00%), low price for the agricultural commodities (82.86%), lack of marketing facilities in the area (48.57%), inadequate extension services (28.57%) and lack of transport for safe transport of the agricultural produce to the market (48.57%). ; Watershed Development Department, Government of Karnataka (World Bank Funded) Sujala –III Project

This dissertation investigates the ways in which societies are coming to know and govern solar geoengineering. The question at the heart of this dissertation is not whether solar geoengineering will succeed, or even whether it should, but rather what makes it --- and its governance --- imaginable. To this end, the bulk of this dissertation aimed to analyze the co-production of the evidence --- and governance assumptions --- for a sociotechnical system that does not yet exist. To do so, I draw on work in science and technology studies (STS) and political science to elucidate and analyze the political and scientific claims underpinning expert attempts to capture the public imagination and put solar geoengineering on mainstream public policy agendas. I argue that the ability to put an emerging technology on the public agenda constitutes an exercise of power, determined neither by social structures nor entrepreneurial social actors alone, and entails its own, oft-neglected, evidentiary politics.Decades of scholarship in the interpretive social sciences demonstrates that framing and producing technoscience requires imaginative as much as technical work. Sheila Jasanoff's concept of `sociotechnical imaginaries' offers a useful point of entry into these dynamics. Sociotechnical imaginaries describe ``collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures'' co-produced with advances in science and technology. As a theoretical concept, imaginaries help to explain why some visions of scientific and social order are co-produced, while others are not. Coupling this work with responsible research and innovation (RRI), which is concerned with the responsible steering of technoscientific developments, draws attention to the ways these imaginaries may play a vital role in the development, assessment, and governance of emerging technologies in the present, making scrutiny of their content and prospects for institutionalization urgent and timely.Any social scientific study of solar-geoengineering-in-the-making presents challenges for the analyst, some of which are shared across `emerging technologies,' and some of which are unique to this topic, at least at this stage. For one, the supply of research on solar geoengineering --- social scientific and otherwise --- has outpaced any demand function. It is not yet a topic of research in the private sector, nor is it entangled in broader imaginaries of national identity or competitiveness, though this may change. As Steve Rayner has pointed out, solar geoengineering is at a research impasse. Moreover, the primacy of models as an evidentiary basis for contemplating solar geoengineering has contributed to its stabilization as an object of governance before we know much about what it is likely to become, or even whether it is doable at all. This has contributed to a set of early assumptions about solar geoengineering (for example, as cheap and easy, or likely to make things better or worse for specific people in specific places) that need to be revisited. In this supply-driven context, the visions of a relatively narrow set of actors --- and narrow kinds of evidence --- are forming the foundation for future policy regimes. In Evoking equity as a rationale for solar geoengineering research? Scrutinizing emerging expert visions of equity, I examine the scientization of debates about the equity implications of solar geoengineering research. In so doing, I identify three sets of equity-related arguments advanced by sociotechnical vanguards advocating for more solar geoengineering research. The first is a call for more research as a means to shed light on the distributional outcomes of envisioned futures with and without solar geoengineering. This includes a call to reduce uncertainties inherent in scientific models examining distributional outcomes of potential deployment of solar geoengineering. Accompanying such calls is a discernible shift in the content of science itself, from more extreme to more `realistic' modeled scenarios of deployment, and from consideration of global to regional effects. The second equity-related rationale for more research is a call for comparative risk-risk assessment, underpinned by the claim that equity demands that potential risks and benefits of solar geoengineering be compared to the risks of climate change itself, especially for vulnerable populations. The third equity-related rationale for more solar geoengineering research is the invocation of the 1.5 degree aspirational goal of the Paris Agreement as requiring research on solar geoengineering, out of concern for the global poor and those most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change.My research suggests reveals several implications of this expert-driven, outcome-oriented, and risk-based understanding of equity. First, it may suggest that more research on solar geoengineering is the only rational choice, since many of the relevant equity concerns are empirical matters, amenable to resolution through the provision of more science. Second, it sidesteps the question of whether and how diverse non-experts should have a say in whether and how such research moves forward --- even if it is to occur on their behalf, in part by assuming that climate-related preferences are knowable and quantifiable. Third, the focus on predicting the outcomes of any future deployment at this stage represents an exercise in speculative ethics, and risks ignoring alternative ways of thinking about equity and responsibility in the context of technological innovation. Finally, I suggest that further analysis should be directed toward whether the vanguard visions I explore reflect a broader shift in operationalizing equity within multilateral climate politics, with those bearing the greatest responsibility now recast as `risk managers' on behalf of the global poor and the vulnerable. I argue that those characterized as `the vulnerable' in expert discourses should regain their status as agential subjects, rather than remain undifferentiated objects in expert discourse. Empirical research suggests that publics have a set of concerns not captured in the approach to equity I analyze in this dissertation, including issues around moral responsibility, historical global injustices, the ability to be included in, and benefit from, technological development, and concerns around lack of agency and self-determination in shaping innovation pathways.In The Politics of Climate Models for Solar Geoengineering Research, I argue that there is an oft-neglected politics of evidence around attempts to put emerging topics on the formal public agenda, which has the potential to shape future policy regimes. In this chapter, I analyze the mutual construction of solar geoengineering modeling and policy framing. Climate models have been understood as important nodes at the interface of climate science and policy, and as capable of shaping societies' understanding of, and responses to, climate change. As other scholars have pointed out, less has been said about the development of this relationship over time, which can help explain how it is that the intersection of modeling and politics takes on the form that it does.There are at least two issues around uncertainty and representation in the use of climate models for knowledge about solar geoengineering, which raise questions at the intersection of modeling and politics. The first is that models are being used to represent technologies which do not yet exist, black-boxing the engineering in geoengineering ideas. As one interviewee stated, ``In the model, you can just make geoengineering work. You can just assume that the oceans have a higher albedo because of ocean bubbles, whether it's possible or not.'' This results in the management of the representation of a technology in models, rather than managing the development of the technology itself, eliding important near-term questions around the complexities of technology development and the structure of responsible research programs, and stabilizing solar geoengineering as an object of governance in potentially problematic ways. Secondly, there is significant debate about whether these models can usefully predict outcomes at all; uncertainties that may be less relevant to models of and for climate science and mitigation policy may become `matters of concern' when it comes to predicting or promising regarding the effects of geoengineering.I argue that imaginaries of solar geoengineering technologies --- despite not serving current regulatory demands, and despite the non-existence of the technologies themselves (perhaps because of it) --- are engaging directly with policy needs (both current and predicted). With regard to current needs, the focus on models as proxies for actual deployment of these imagined technologies has the effect of making it seem as though societies `know' more about whether and how to develop these techniques than they do, which is resulting in debates about the management of the representation of a technology which does not yet exist. This has contributed to the current research impasse, in which ``technologists await a green light from social scientists before proceeding with research, while social scientists are limited to commenting on highly speculative ideas about how geoengineering might turn out in practice.'' In this context, policymakers are avoiding decisions regarding the advisability of a research program aimed at answering societally-relevant questions about technology development, and are content to fund indoor modeling studies. Alternatively, one might argue that the existing settlement, at least in the US, between governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and scientists, in which governments seem willing to fund indoor modeling studies but accept an informal moratorium on everything else, may itself be a kind of clumsy solution, the stability of which depends on its non-articulation.There is a broader question around displacement in the realm of climate policy raised by this research. Several scholars and commentators have raised questions about the role of imagined technologies in the present, especially since the 2015 Paris climate agreement. As Steve Rayner has pointed out, the agreement maintains the belief that global temperature targets are achievable via the inclusion of imaginary technologies, which represents a kind of `magical thinking.' Noting that the line between ambition and delusion is not always sharp, Rayner argues that the reality seems to be that the world is already likely to exceed the temperature limit agreed to absent some form of geoengineering. Despite this reality, the inclusion of climate engineering technologies in modeled scenarios has the effect of making political targets seem achievable. This is true even without any instrumental action --- and potential near-term political costs --- to policymakers when it comes to actually funding research and development on these imagined technologies, and assessing their impacts and implications.Finally, in Climate Researchers' Views of Solar Geoengineering: Benefits, Risks, and Governance, I present the results of the first survey of climate change researchers' views of solar geoengineering research and its appropriate oversight. I argue that definitions of `expert' in emerging domains is itself a contested political category, and far from straightforward, particularly when the technologies under consideration do not yet exist. Respondents in this survey, much like surveys of general publics, report concern about the moral hazard operating at the level of political decision-making. Nevertheless, respondents generally support research on solar geoengineering, including small-scale outdoor studies --- despite both a general concern that research may result in lock-in and slippery slopes to deployment, and skepticism about the advisability of ever deploying these techniques. I find strong support for some form of novel or supplementary governance arrangement(s) for research, and a belief that scientific self-regulation is insufficient to manage risks. There seems to be less agreement, however, on particular governance approaches; I find mixed responses regarding the desirability of a `physical thresholds' approach to governing geoengineering experiments, for example.Despite the fact that most respondents express skepticism about the desirability of future deployment, respondents tend to support more research into these techniques, both indoor and, to a lesser extent, outdoors. This might be explained by a view that research will reveal reasons not to move forward, or because of a belief that concerns about slippery slopes are overstated (although this seems less likely, given that most respondents report concern that research may result in lock-in and slippery slopes to deployment). Alternatively, a substantial number of researchers surveyed here may have an interest in scientific research moving forward in general, irrespective of its strategic aims. Respondents express skepticism about prediction and controllability when it comes to solar geoengineering deployment. It remains an open question whether a desirable future world with solar geoengineering would depend upon predicting such outcomes, although most respondents do report a belief that uncertainty in our understanding of the climate system means we should never deploy solar geoengineering. Given low awareness of solar geoengineering, participation by a narrow set of actors --- including scientists, but also those who claim to represent the views of civil society --- can close down discussion of this imaginary technology, rather than open it up. In this way, the views of relevant but disempowered publics are assumed before most people have even heard of these ideas. It remains to be seen whether and how early visions of solar geoengineering will cohere or acquire collective stability, or whether they will be radically disrupted. My hope is that the data and analysis in this dissertation may prove useful in tracing the evolution of solar geongineering and its governance over time.

Matter retention in streams and rivers is an ecosystem service of outstanding ecological as well as economic importance. Studying and monitoring instream nitrate dynamics is essential to reduce the tremendous consequences of eutrophication of freshwater systems and coastal zones. Moreover, the cycling of nitrate in lotic systems is a paradigm for the instream transport and transformation behavior of any other reactive substance subjected to human perturbation of its natural cycle. Identifying instream processes and drivers that dictate nitrate transport in rivers and quantifying the capacity of rivers to retain nitrate is therefore of scientific as well as political interest and was the motivation for this thesis. Even though understanding and monitoring of instream nitrate dynamics is advanced compared to most other emerging substances of concern (e.g. pharmaceuticals, synthetic and natural hormones), methodologies to directly assess nitrate dynamics are still limited, leaving a high degree of uncertainty to descriptive and predictive models. One major problem of common data acquisition is that the temporal and spatial variability of nitrate processing rates arising from the complex interactions of hydrological and biogeochemical drivers cannot be captured with traditional methods. For technical reasons, most studies have been conducted in small (and rather pristine) streams. Thus, particularly the functional behavior of larger rivers and anthropogenically modified systems is widely uncharacterized. In this work, two methodologies were developed which allow quantitatively assessing nitrate dynamics on two relevant scales: The reach scale (1), which is of particular interest for monitoring strategies and local hyporheic nutrient fluxes (2), with the hyporheic zone being a key compartment in instream solute cycling. In order to assess the seasonal fluctuation in nitrate dynamics (3), a primary demand on the methods was that they operate continuous or over longer time spans. On the reach scale, a combined two-station time-series and longitudinal profiling approach based on measurements from automated sensors, provided novel insights into seasonal variations of nitrogen processing and allowed quantitative comparison of the dynamics in a natural versus a heavily modified reach. Uptake was lower and the influence of season on uptake rates more marked in the modified reach. Continuous implementation of the proposed approach, fully covering the annual variations, can essentially improve existing monitoring practices by quantifying the effect of altered morphology and water chemistry on retention rates. Hyporheic passive flux meters are an efficient tool to quantify time integrative hyporheic nutrient fluxes. In combination with other measurements, the results from a field application unraveled an unexpected hyporheic source-sink behavior for nitrate at the study reach. Different to common observations, not the upper most layer of the hyporheic zone but the layer between 15 and 30 cm was most efficient in removing nitrate, assumedly because substrate limitation is irrelevant in agricultural (nutrient and DOC enriched) streams. Further, higher discharge did not increase hyporheic exchange, because the monotonous morphology and absence of bedforms reduced the usually dominating effect of increased drag resistance with higher flow. The studies presented here deliver empirical evidence that, on both investigated scales, anthropogenic modifications substantially impact instream nitrate dynamics. Alterations to channel morphology, riparian vegetation, hydrology and water quality change principal ecosystem functions relevant for solute retention in streams and rivers. The presented results show that anthropogenically modified systems may therefore behave unexpectedly if predictions are built on the driver-response correlations observed in natural systems. Worldwide a large proportion of rivers and streams are modified by humans. However, altered systems are not adequately represented in studies focusing on solute dynamics. Efficient management of such systems, including evaluation of measures to reduce the nitrogen burden on receiving water bodies, requires quantitative knowledge on instream processes and governing drivers. Continuous or time integrative observations are more representative for the solute cycling characteristics of a system than "snapshot"-like assessments. The new methodologies thereby also facilitate extrapolation of local measurements and linking the resulting data with catchment scale models. Overall synthesis of the presented results suggests that such measurements of nitrate dynamics in streams may be used as an indicator for the ecosystem integrity.:Acknowledgments i List of Tables vii List of figures viii List of Abbreviations and acronyms ix Summary xi 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Goals and questions 3 1.1.1. Reach scale quantification of nitrate dynamics 4 1.1.2. Quantifying hyporheic nitrate fluxes 5 1.1.3. Hyporheic nitrate dynamics in an anthropogenically modified stream 6 2. High frequency measurements of reach scale nitrogen uptake in a 4th order river with contrasting hydromorphology and variable water chemistry (Weiße Elster, Germany) 8 2.1. Abstract 8 2.2. Introduction 9 2.3. Methods and Materials 12 2.3.1. Study site 12 2.3.2. Two stations time-series 14 2.3.3. Longitudinal Profiling 17 2.4. Results 19 2.4.1. Two stations time-series 19 2.4.2. Longitudinal profiling 23 2.5. Discussion 26 2.5.1. Diel variation 26 2.5.2. Comparison between sampling periods 28 2.5.3. Inter-reach comparison 29 2.5.4. Comparison of the Weiße Elster and other rivers 30 2.6. Conclusions 31 2.7. References 33 3. Quantifying nutrient fluxes with a new Hyporheic Passive Flux Meter (HPFM) 39 3.1. Abstract 39 3.2. Introduction 40 3.3. Methods 44 3.3.1. Construction and materials 44 3.3.2. Selection and characterization of resin 45 3.3.3. Preparation of activated carbon with alcohol tracers 47 3.3.4. Deployment and retrieval procedure 49 3.3.5. Analysis and data treatment 49 3.3.6. Field testing of hyporheic passive flux meters (HPFMs) 51 3.4. Results 56 3.4.1. Laboratory experiments 56 3.4.2. Field testing 56 3.5. Discussion 63 3.6. Conclusion and Outlook 69 3.7. References 70 4. Hyporheic passive flux meters reveal unexpected source-sink behavior of nitrogen in an anthropogenically modified stream (Holtemme, Germany) 79 4.1. Abstract 79 4.2. Introduction 80 4.3. Methods 82 4.3.1. Study site 83 4.3.2. Instrumental set-up 84 4.3.3. Deriving hyporheic denitrification rates 89 4.2. Results 92 4.2.1. Hyporheic nutrient fluxes and Darcy velocities 92 4.2.2. Nutrient concentrations in pore water 94 4.2.3. O2 and temperature 94 4.2.4. Hyporheic residence time and denitrification 95 4.5. Discussion 97 4.5.1.Darcy velocities and angle of hyporheic flow 97 4.5.2. Biotic activity 98 4.5.3. Extent of active hyporheic zone 98 4.5.4. The effect of redox conditions and residence time on the NO3 source-sink function of the Hyporheic zone 99 4.5.5. Anthropogenic influence on water quality 101 4.6. Conclusions 102 4.7. References 104 5. Discussion 110 5.1. Evaluation of the new methodology 110 5.1.1. High frequency measurements of nitrogen removal in rivers 110 5.1.2. Hyporheic passive flux meter for the quantification of nutrient fluxes 113 5.2. Results from the field studies and scientific implications 115 5.2.1. Nitrogen processing in aquatic ecosystems 115 5.2.2. Reach scale nitrogen dynamics in the Weiße Elster 117 5.2.3. Hyporheic nutrient fluxes at the Holtemme 120 5.3. Moving beyond and Outlook 123 5.3.1. Scaling and representability 124 5.3.2. Modified ecosystems 128 6. References 130 Note on the commencement of the doctoral procedure 151 Curriculum Vitae 152 ; Der Rückhalt von Stoffen in Flüssen und Bächen ist eine Ökosystem-Dienstleistung von grösster ökologischer wie auch wirtschaftlicher Bedeutung. Um die negativen Auswirkungen durch Eutrophierung von Süsswasserkörpern und Küstengebieten zu reduzieren, ist es erforderlich, die Stickstoffdynamik in Fliessgewässern zu untersuchen und zu überwachen. Darüber hinaus, kann der Umsatz von Nitrat in lotischen Systemen als Paradigma für den Transport und die Transformation anderer reaktiver Substanzen von anthropogenem Ursprung gesehen werden. Die Prozesse zu identifizieren, die den Nitrattransport in Fliessgewässern und deren Kapazität Nitrat zurückzuhalten beeinflussen, ist somit von wissenschaftlichem wie auch von politischem Interesse und war die Motivation für diese Arbeit. Obwohl unser Wissen über das Verhalten von Nitrat in Fliessgewässern, im Vergleich zu vielen erst neuerdings an Bedeutung gewinnender Substanzen (z.B. Arzneimittelrückstände, synthetische und natürliche Hormone) fortgeschritten ist, fehlen Methoden um die Nitratdynamik im Fliessgewässer zu erfassen. Dadurch ist die Überwachung wie auch der Vorhersage des Nitratexports durch Fliessgewässer mit grossen Unsicherheiten behaftet. Ein Hauptproblem bei der Datenerfassung ist, dass die Umsatzraten von Nitrat aufgrund der komplexen Zusammenspiele von biogeochemischen wie auch hydrologischen Einflussfaktoren, sowohl räumlich wie auch zeitlich stark schwanken. Ausserdem wurden aus technischen Gründen die meisten Studien bislang in kleinen (und eher unberührten) Flüssen durchgeführt. Deshalb bestehen insbesondere über das Exportverhalten grosser und anthropogen veränderter Systeme grosse Unsicherheiten. In dieser Arbeit wurden zwei Methoden entwickelt, die es erlauben, die Nitratdynamiken auf zwei relevanten Grössenskalen zu erfassen: Einmal über eine Flussstrecke von einigen Kilometern und zum anderen lokal in der Hyporheischen Zone. Die erste Skala (Flusstrecke) ist insbesondere für die Entwicklung von Monitoring-Strategien wichtig. Die Hyporheische Zone ist als Schlüsselkompartiment für den Stoffumsatz in Fliessgewässern von Bedeutung. Da zeitliche (z.B. saisonale) Schwankungen im Nitratumsatz erfasst werden sollten, war eine primäre Herausforderung an die Methoden, dass sie für die kontinuierliche Aufzeichnung über länger Zeitspannen geeignet sind. Für die Fliessgewässerstrecke wurde eine Bilanzierung von Zeitreihen zwischen zwei Stationen mit Messungen über das Längsprofil kombiniert. Die Zeitreihen wurden mit automatisierten Sensoren aufgenommen. Der hier entwickelte Ansatz von Messung und Auswertung lieferte neue Erkenntnisse über die saisonale Variation des Stickstoffumsatzes und ermöglichte einen quantitativen Vergleich zwischen einem natürlichen und einem anthropogen überprägten Gewässerabschnitt. Der Nitratrückhalt im veränderten Abschnitt war niedriger und der Einfluss der Jahreszeit auf die Umsatzraten war stärker ausgeprägt. Eine dauerhafte Installierung des Messaufbaus, der die gesamten Jahresschwankungen abdeckt, könnte die existierenden Überwachungsverfahren erheblich verbessern, weil so der Effekt der Fliessgewässermorphologie und der Wasserchemie auf die Umsatzraten berücksichtigt werden können. Hyporheische Passive Flux Meter sind ein Instrument für die zeitlich gemittelte Quantifizierung von Nitratflüsse durch die Hyporheische Zone. In Kombination mit weiteren Messungen brachten die Ergebnisse einer Freilandmessung unerwartete Ergebnisse über die Entstehung und den Abbau von Nitrat in der Hyporheischen Zone des untersuchten Flusses zum Vorschau. Anders als üblicher Weise beobachtet, war der Abbau von Nitrat nicht in der obersten Schicht der Hyporheischen Zone, sondern in einer Tiefe von 15 bis 30 cm am effizientesten. Wahrscheinlich verhalten sich landwirtschaftlich beeinflusste Gewässer (die mit Nitrat und organischen Stoffen angereichert sind) diesbezüglich nicht laut Lehrbuchmeinung, weil es nicht zur Stofflimitierung in tieferen Schichten kommt. Ebenso unerwartet führten höhere Abflüsse nicht zu vermehrtem hyporheischen Austausch. Es zeigte sich, dass durch die Begradigung des Fliessgewässers, der normalerweise auftretende Austausch an Gewässerbettformen, der mit zunehmenden Abfluss steigt, nicht relevant ist. Die hier vorgestellten Studien liefern empirische Beweise, dass auf beiden untersuchten Skalen anthropogene Veränderungen die Nitratdynamik im Fliessgewässer erheblich beeinflussen. Eingriffe in die Morphologie, Ufervegetation, Hydrologie und Wasserqualität verändern wesentliche Ökosystem-Funktionen, die relevant für den Stoffrückhalt in Flüssen und Bächen sind. Die präsentierten Ergebnisse zeigen dass sich anthropogen veränderte Systeme überraschend verhalten, wenn Vorhersagen auf Aktio-Reaktio-Korrelationen getroffen werden, die aus Beobachtungen in natürlichen Systemen abgeleitet wurden. Weltweit ist ein grosser Anteil der Flüsse und Bäche durch Menschen verändert. Solche beeinträchtigten Fliessgewässer sind jedoch nicht angemessen in Studien über Stoffdynamiken vertreten untersuchen. Effizientes Management solcher Fliessgewässer, ebenso wie die Beurteilung von Massnahmen um die Nitratlast auf die empfangenden Fliessgewässer zu reduzieren, benötigen quantitative Aussagen über Prozesse und vorherrschende Auslöser. Kontinuierliche wie auch zeitlich integrierende Beobachtungen sind repräsentativer als Schnappschuss-Aufnahmen. Die neuen Methoden erleichtern damit auch die Übertragung lokaler Messungen und die Einbindung der gewonnenen Daten in Einzugsgebiet Modelle. Die hier vorgestellten Ergebnisse zeigen des Weiteren, dass die Nitratdynamik in einem Fliessgewässer als Indikator für die Intaktheit des Ökosystems verwendet werden kann.:Acknowledgments i List of Tables vii List of figures viii List of Abbreviations and acronyms ix Summary xi 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Goals and questions 3 1.1.1. Reach scale quantification of nitrate dynamics 4 1.1.2. Quantifying hyporheic nitrate fluxes 5 1.1.3. Hyporheic nitrate dynamics in an anthropogenically modified stream 6 2. High frequency measurements of reach scale nitrogen uptake in a 4th order river with contrasting hydromorphology and variable water chemistry (Weiße Elster, Germany) 8 2.1. Abstract 8 2.2. Introduction 9 2.3. Methods and Materials 12 2.3.1. Study site 12 2.3.2. Two stations time-series 14 2.3.3. Longitudinal Profiling 17 2.4. Results 19 2.4.1. Two stations time-series 19 2.4.2. Longitudinal profiling 23 2.5. Discussion 26 2.5.1. Diel variation 26 2.5.2. Comparison between sampling periods 28 2.5.3. Inter-reach comparison 29 2.5.4. Comparison of the Weiße Elster and other rivers 30 2.6. Conclusions 31 2.7. References 33 3. Quantifying nutrient fluxes with a new Hyporheic Passive Flux Meter (HPFM) 39 3.1. Abstract 39 3.2. Introduction 40 3.3. Methods 44 3.3.1. Construction and materials 44 3.3.2. Selection and characterization of resin 45 3.3.3. Preparation of activated carbon with alcohol tracers 47 3.3.4. Deployment and retrieval procedure 49 3.3.5. Analysis and data treatment 49 3.3.6. Field testing of hyporheic passive flux meters (HPFMs) 51 3.4. Results 56 3.4.1. Laboratory experiments 56 3.4.2. Field testing 56 3.5. Discussion 63 3.6. Conclusion and Outlook 69 3.7. References 70 4. Hyporheic passive flux meters reveal unexpected source-sink behavior of nitrogen in an anthropogenically modified stream (Holtemme, Germany) 79 4.1. Abstract 79 4.2. Introduction 80 4.3. Methods 82 4.3.1. Study site 83 4.3.2. Instrumental set-up 84 4.3.3. Deriving hyporheic denitrification rates 89 4.2. Results 92 4.2.1. Hyporheic nutrient fluxes and Darcy velocities 92 4.2.2. Nutrient concentrations in pore water 94 4.2.3. O2 and temperature 94 4.2.4. Hyporheic residence time and denitrification 95 4.5. Discussion 97 4.5.1.Darcy velocities and angle of hyporheic flow 97 4.5.2. Biotic activity 98 4.5.3. Extent of active hyporheic zone 98 4.5.4. The effect of redox conditions and residence time on the NO3 source-sink function of the Hyporheic zone 99 4.5.5. Anthropogenic influence on water quality 101 4.6. Conclusions 102 4.7. References 104 5. Discussion 110 5.1. Evaluation of the new methodology 110 5.1.1. High frequency measurements of nitrogen removal in rivers 110 5.1.2. Hyporheic passive flux meter for the quantification of nutrient fluxes 113 5.2. Results from the field studies and scientific implications 115 5.2.1. Nitrogen processing in aquatic ecosystems 115 5.2.2. Reach scale nitrogen dynamics in the Weiße Elster 117 5.2.3. Hyporheic nutrient fluxes at the Holtemme 120 5.3. Moving beyond and Outlook 123 5.3.1. Scaling and representability 124 5.3.2. Modified ecosystems 128 6. References 130 Note on the commencement of the doctoral procedure 151 Curriculum Vitae 152

Landwirtschaftliche Märkte sowie die gesamte Ernährungswirtschaft unterliegen in vielen Entwicklungsländern enormen Transformationsprozessen hin zu modernen Wertschöpfungsketten und der Erzeugung hochqualitativer Produkte. Während in den Exportmärkten Produktstandards und Zertifizierung an Bedeutung gewinnen, spielen in Entwicklungsländern nationale und multinationale Super- und Hypermarktketten eine immer größere Rolle. Diese Entwicklungen haben Auswirkungen auf die verschiedenen Akteure der Ernährungswirtschaft, insbesondere auf Kleinbauern. Ein Land, in dem die Expansion von modernen Einzelhandelsstrukturen schon relativ früh begonnen hat, ist Thailand. In den 1980er und 1990er Jahren haben, neben anderen Faktoren, das steigende Pro-Kopf Einkommen, erhöhte Urbanisierungsraten sowie die zunehmende Arbeitstätigkeit von Frauen die Etablierung von modernen Einzelhandelsstrukturen beschleunigt. Während die fünf wichtigsten Super- und Hypermarktketten 1996 insgesamt 36 Filialen in Thailand hatten waren es 2009 bereits 295 Filialen. Zu Beginn der Entwicklung waren moderne Einzelhandelsgeschäfte darauf fokussiert, Konsumenten mit umfassenden Einkaufsmöglichkeiten sowie mit niedrigen Preisen für Grundnahrungsmittel und verarbeitete Produkte zu werben. Je mehr sich die Märkte allerdings etablieren, desto wichtiger werden auch frische Lebensmittel, wie z.B. Obst und Gemüse. Auch wenn die Ausweitung dieses Produktsegments durch bspw. die Notwendigkeit einer durchgängigen Kühlkette erschwert wird, steigt der Verkaufsanteil von frischen Lebensmitteln an den totalen Lebensmittelverkäufen von modernen Einzelhandelsmärkten an. Da diese Produktkategorie eine wesentliche Bedeutung für Kleinbauern hat, liegt der Fokus dieser Studie auf frischen Lebensmitteln, insbesondere auf Gemüse. Das erste Kapitel untersucht am Beispiel von Paprika, wie Kleinbauern in Entwicklungsländern besser von modernen Wertschöpfungsketten profitieren können. Paprika ist ein Gemüse das erst vor etwa 10 Jahren als Produktinnovation in Thailand eingeführt wurde, um auf Exportmärkten und im modernen Lebensmitteleinzelhandel verkauft zu werden. Im Laufe der Zeit hat Paprika bei den lokalen Konsumenten an Popularität gewonnen und er wird heute auch auf traditionelleren Lebensmittelmärkten gehandelt. Die Analyse basiert auf Daten einer Haushaltserhebung im Wassereinzugsgebiet Mae Sa in Nordthailand. Die Erhebung umfasst 246 Paprika produzierende Haushalte sowie 62 landwirtschaftliche Haushalte, die keinen Paprika produzieren. Ergebnisse der Regressionsmodelle zeigen, dass die Kultivierung von Paprika, und insbesondere ein früher Einstieg in die Paprikaproduktion, signifikant zu höherem Haushaltseinkommen beiträgt und damit eine wichtige Strategie für Kleinbauern darstellt, ihre Lebenssituation zu verbessern. Es gilt allerdings zu bedenken, dass fehlende Landrechte, eine schwache infrastrukturelle Anbindung sowie fehlender Zugang zu Informationen Barrieren für eine frühe Übernahme der Kultivierung von Paprika darstellen. Es ist daher eine ernsthafte Herausforderung für die Politik, diese Hindernisse zu überwinden um negative Einkommenseffekte für benachteiligte Landwirte zu verhindern. Die Integration in moderne statt in traditionelle Wertschöpfungsketten trägt bisher allerdings nicht zu einem erhöhten Einkommen bei. Dieses hebt noch einmal hervor, dass externe Effekte, die durch die Etablierung modernen Einzelhandelsmärkten entstehen, bei der Bewertung dieser Märkte nicht unterschätzt werden sollten und in zukünftigen Studien berücksichtigt werden müssen. Der moderne Lebensmitteleinzelhandel führt nicht nur zu neuen Produkten und Produktstandards, sondern auch zu substantiellen Veränderungen im Management von Wertschöpfungsketten, was die Vermarktungsentscheidungen von Landwirten ebenfalls beeinflussen kann. Super- und Hypermärkte modernisieren zunehmend ihr Beschaffungswesen, was unter anderem bedeutet, dass sie vermehrt auf vertragliche Absprachen mit ihren Lieferanten bestehen. Landwirte beliefern Supermärkte häufig nicht mehr direkt, sondern sind über Zwischenhändler mit diesen Märkten verbunden. Basierend auf den Daten der oben genannten Haushaltserhebung werden im zweiten Kapitel die (vertraglichen) Vereinbarungen zwischen Landwirten und Händlern in traditionellen und modernen Wertschöpfungsketten für Paprika verglichen. Darüber hinaus ist es von Interesse zu analysieren, inwiefern bestehende Unterschiede die Entscheidung eines Landwirtes für einen bestimmten Vermarktungsweg beeinflussen. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Annahme, dass zwischen den Vermarktungswegen signifikante Unterschiede in Vereinbarungen zwischen Landwirten und Händlern bestehen. Außerdem zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass einige dieser Unterschiede die Vermarktungsentscheidungen von Landwirten beeinflussen. Produktpreise spielen für Landwirte ebenso wie das Bereitstellen von Betriebsmitteln und Krediten und die eigene Unabhängigkeit und Flexibilität eine wichtige Rolle. Die Ergebnisse des Choice Experimentes stellen heraus, dass Landwirte im Allgemeinen eine Präferenz für Vermarktungswege haben, die keine vertraglichen Vereinbarungen beinhalten. Außerdem bestätigt das Experiment, dass einige der oben genannten Aspekte (z.B. die Bereitstellung von Krediten) die Attraktivität von Verträgen erhöhen. Der wichtigste Aspekt für Landwirte ist allerdings eine gute persönliche Beziehung zum Händler, was darauf schließen lässt, dass Landwirte ein gewisses Maß an Vertrauen wertschätzen. Zusammenfassend zeigen diese Ergebnisse, dass für die bessere Einbindung von Kleinbauern in moderne Einzelhandels struktur en nicht nur die Mängel landwirtschaftlicher Märkte überwunden werden müssen, sondern auch berücksichtigt werden sollte, wie Absprachen zwischen Landwirten und Händlern gestaltet werden. Die Einbindung von Kleinbauern in den modernen Einzelhandel hat das Potential, die Lebensumstände von Kleinbauern zu verbessern. Die vorherigen Ergebnisse verdeutlichen allerdings, dass verschiedenste Barrieren bestehen, die eine weitreichende Integration von Kleinbauern nach wie vor erschweren. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass auch traditionelle Märkte finanzielle Anreize für Landwirte bieten können und dass traditionelle Vermarktungsstrukturen den Präferenzen von Landwirten teilweise besser entsprechen. Daher ist es ebenfalls wichtig abzuschätzen, inwiefern traditionelle Einzelhandelsstrukturen, insbesondere die Märkte für Frischwaren, von der Transformation der Ernährungswirtschaft betroffen sind. Dieser Aspekt wird im dritten Kapitel aufgegriffen, in dem die Wettbewerbsstrategie von Super- und Hypermärkten in bezug auf Preise und erkennbare Qualitätsattribute zweier Gemüsesorten, Morning Glory und Paprika, verglichen wurde. Dafür wurden Daten über bestimmte Qualitätsattribute und Preise auf 43 Märkten in 17 Distrikten von Bangkok erhoben. Die Stichprobe besteht aus insgesamt 14 Filialen der drei wichtigsten Supermarktketten und insgesamt 12 Filialen der drei wichtigsten Hypermarktketten sowie 17 traditionellen Märkten für Frischwaren. Der Vergleich der Preise und der Qualitätsattribute auf den verschiedenen Märkten zeigt, dass weder Super- noch Hypermärkte in Bezug auf die Preise wettbewerbsfähig mit traditionellen Märkten für Frischwaren sind. Im Gegensatz dazu bieten diese Märkte Produkte höherer Qualität an. Die Ergebnisse des hedonischen Preismodells legen dar, dass auf allen Märkten bestimmte Qualitätsattribute die Produktpreise signifikant beeinflussen. Darüber hinaus haben Super- und Hypermärkten einen signifikanten und positiven Einfluss auf die Produktpreise. Dieses Ergebnis lässt darauf schließen, dass moderne Lebensmittelmärkte als solches für Konsumenten einen gewissen Wert darstellen, da sie bereit sind unabhängig von Qualitätsunterschieden, höhere Produktpreise zu bezahlen. Allerdings sind die Konsumenten der mittleren und höheren Einkommensklassen eher Kunden moderner Einzelhandelsmärkte, so dass das allgemeine Wirtschaftswachstum vor allem dem modernen Lebensmittelsektor zugute kommt. Traditionelle Märkte für Frischwaren und damit der Großteil an Landwirten bleiben weitgehend außen vor. Aus den Ergebnissen dieser Studie lassen sich wichtige Politikempfehlungen für die Unterstützung von Kleinbauern in Entwicklungsländern ableiten. Einerseits sollte die Integration von Kleinbauern in moderne Einzelhandelsstrukturen weiter gefördert werden. Dafür müssen Regierungen sich aktiv engagieren, um das Funktionieren der landwirtschaftlichen Märkte zu verbessern, bspw. durch Investitionen in die Infrastruktur oder die Verbesserung des Zugangs von Kleinbauern zu Marktinformationen. Darüber hinaus müssen die Beziehungen zwischen Kleinbauern und den nicht lokalen Händlern verbessert werden. Ein Ansatz in diese Richtung ist eine bessere Einbindung von lokalen Händlern, die häufig schon lang andauernde Beziehungen mit Landwirten haben. Wo dieses logistisch nicht möglich ist, sollten Unternehmen in Vertrauensbildende Maßnahmen investieren, z.B. in häufigere persönliche Kontakte zu den Landwirten oder in transparente Preisbildung. Andererseits sollte die Bedeutung von traditionellen Märkten für Frischwaren nicht aus den Augen verloren werden. Um Kunden der mittleren und höheren Einkommensklassen zu gewinnen und dadurch auch vom allgemeinen Wirtschaftswachstum zu profitieren müssen sich diese Märkte an die sich verändernden Einkaufsgewohnheiten von Konsumenten anpassen. Dazu muss die allgemeine Attraktivität der Märkte, z.B. durch die Verbesserung der hygienischen Standards oder durch die Ausweitung des Angebots an Parkplätzen, verbessert werden. Darüber hinaus muss auch das Produktangebot angepasst werden. Diese Veränderungen können jedoch nur zum Teil von den Händlern selbst getragen werden. Vor allem bedarf es der Unterstützung der Regierung und/oder privater Investoren, die finanzielle Mittel und Know-how zur Verfügung stellen. ; In many developing countries, agricultural and food systems are undergoing a major transformation towards high-value, modern supply chains. In export markets, stan-dards and certification systems are gaining in importance, while within developing countries, the role of national and multinational super- and hypermarket chains is growing. These developments have important implications for various stakeholders in the agro-food system, including, in particular, smallholder farmers. One country where the expansion of modern retail structures started relatively early is Thailand. In the 1980s and 90s increasing per capita incomes, urbanization trends and female labor force participation spurred, among other things, the development of modern retail structures. In 1996, the five most important super- and hypermarket chains had a total of 36 branches, and by 2009, this number of branches had already increased to 295. While modern retail markets first focus on attracting consumers with an all-in-one shopping strategy and particularly low prices for processed foods and staples, their stores start to mimic wet market situations in an advanced development stage. Although some barriers exist, e.g. a continuous cool chain, the share of fresh produce sales (as a percentage of total food sales) is also increasing at modern retail markets. Taking into account the importance of fruit and vegetable production for smallholder farmers, our study focuses on the fresh fruit and vegetable sector. In the first chapter, we analyze how smallholder farmers in developing countries can benefit from modern supply chains. We take the example of sweet pepper, which was introduced as a product innovation in Thailand some 10 years ago, mainly for ex-ports and upscale domestic supermarkets. Over time, sweet pepper gained wide pop-ularity among domestic consumers, so that nowadays it is also traded at more tradi-tional wholesale and retail markets. Our analysis is based on original farm survey data from 246 sweet pepper producers and 62 non-sweet pepper farmers in the Mae Sa Watershed in northern Thailand. Results from our regression models show that sweet pepper cultivation, and in par-ticular an early adoption, contributes significantly to higher household incomes and is therefore an important potential avenue for smallholder farmers to improve their livelihood. However, the duration analysis indicates that missing land titles, weak infrastructure conditions and limited access to information constituted serious con-straints during the early phases of sweet pepper adoption. There must be a change in policy in order to overcome these initial adoption constraints for disadvantaged farmers, and to thus avoid negative income distribution effects. Strikingly, at this stage, participation in modern supply chains does not lead to higher incomes than when supplying sweet pepper to traditional markets. This finding underlies that spill-overs from modern retail markets should not be underestimated; they must be ac-counted for in future studies of the wider implications of modern supply chains. Modern retail markets not only bring new products and product standards - they also implement profound changes in supply chain management, thereby affecting farm-ers marketing decisions. Super- and hypermarkets increasingly modernize their pro-curement systems and switch from buying through spot-market transactions to con-tractual agreements with farmers, often through specialized intermediaries. In the second chapter, we used the data from the above-mentioned farm survey to compare institutional arrangements, including contracts, between farmers and traders in tradi-tional and modern supply chains of sweet pepper. Moreover, we assess the impact of those differences on the farmers market channel choice. Our descriptive comparison of institutional arrangements confirms that significant differences exist among mar-keting channels. Furthermore, we show that some of those differences influence the farmers market-ing behavior. While output prices matter, the farmers also value other aspects such as access to inputs, credit and information, as well as independence and flexibility. Re-sults from the choice experiment additionally point out the farmers general prefer-ence for marketing options that do not involve a contract, and confirm that the as-pects mentioned above can increase the attractiveness of contracts. Yet, the most important factor for the farmers is a personal relationship with the buyer, which seems to reflect their desire for mutual trust. These findings show that beyond ad-dressing market imperfections, designing institutional arrangements according to the farmers needs can also contribute to more widespread smallholder participation in modern retail markets. The integration of smallholder farmers in modern retail markets is one way to im-prove their livelihood. However, our previous analyses show that various barriers exist that continue to limit integration possibilities. We showed that traditional mar-kets can also offer financial incentives to smallholder farmers and, in many ways, traditional marketing structures correspond to the marketing preferences of small-holder farmers. It is therefore also important to know how much traditional retail structures, and in particular, wet markets, are affected by food system transforma-tions. We consider this issue in the third chapter when we analyze the competition strategy of modern retail outlets with regard to product prices and observable product quality attributes. We again focus on the fresh fruits and vegetables segment, and in particular, on two products: morning glory and sweet pepper. We collected data about these products quality attributes and prices on 43 market outlets in 17 districts of Bangkok. The sample comprises 14 branches of the three most important super-market chains and 12 branches of the three most important hypermarket chains, as well as 17 wet markets. Descriptive comparisons of product prices and quality among the three types of markets show that neither super- nor hypermarkets are price competitive with wet markets. However, super- and hypermarkets offer higher prod-uct quality. Results from hedonic price models show that certain quality attributes significantly increase product prices. Moreover, we find a price effect of modern retail outlets, which demonstrates that despite any potential differences in quality, prices in super- and hypermarkets are higher than in wet markets. This shows that consumers not only value specific qual-ity attributes, but also modern retail formats. The overall picture resulting from this analysis is that traditional and modern markets have been acting more as comple-ments to one another than as competitors. However, since modern retail formats pri-marily serve the middle and upper income classes, these markets are reaping the most benefits from overall economic growth. Wet markets - and the majority of smallholder farmers - are being left behind. All in all, the results of this study have important policy implications for the support of smallholder farmers in emerging economies. On the one hand, the integration of smallholder farmers should continue to be promoted. This would require government involvement with regard to overcoming widespread market imperfections, like weak infrastructure conditions and limited access to market information. Furthermore, the relationship between the farmers and buyers needs to be improved. This is especially important regarding company representatives and intermediaries, who are often non-locals. One possible approach could be to more explicitly involve local traders who have established long-term relationships with the farmers. In areas where this is not logistically possible, companies and intermediaries could try to improve their ties with the farmers through other trust-building mechanisms, such as increasing the number of personal interactions and making pricing and grading procedures more transparent. On the other hand, the importance of wet markets as a major market outlet for smallholder farmers should not be forgotten. In order to attract middle and high income classes, and thereby benefit from overall economic growth, wet markets need to adapt to changing consumer demands. This can only be achieved by increasing the overall attractiveness of wet markets, e.g. by improving the hygienic conditions and offering more parking lots, as well as by expanding the product assortment. However, traders have a limited capacity to influence market modernization; such measures need to be supported with financial means and know-how by the government and/or private investors.

Macroeconomic expectation data are of great interest to different agents due to their importance as central input factors in various applications. To name but a few, politicians, capital market participants, as well as academics, incorporate these forecast data into their decision processes. Consequently, a sound understanding of the quality properties of macroeconomic forecast data, their quality determinants, as well as potential ways to improve macroeconomic predictions is desirable. This thesis consists of three essays on the quality of analysts' forecasts. The first essay deals with macroeconomic forecast quality on the consensus level, while the second one investigates individual analysts' predictions and their quality determinants. In the third essay a bottom-up approach is introduced to derive macroeconomic forecasts from analysts' predictions at the microeconomic level. It is generally assumed that macroeconomic consensus forecasts provide a reasonable approximation of market participants' expectations regarding upcoming macroeconomic releases. Research areas in which these expectation data are a central input to isolate the unanticipated news component of a given announcement include studies analyzing the price impact of macroeconomic news in bond markets (e.g., Balduzzi et al., 2001; Gilbert et al., 2010), stock markets (e.g., Boyd et al., 2005; Cenesizoglu, 2011) as well as in foreign exchange markets (e.g., Andersen et al., 2003; Evans and Lyons, 2008). Furthermore, these forecast data are used to study market co-movement (e.g., Albuquerque and Vega, 2009), market volatility (e.g., Beber and Brandt, 2008; Brenner et al., 2009), changes in market liquidity (e.g., Brandt and Kavajecz, 2004; Pasquariello and Vega, 2007, 2009) as well as bond and equity risk premiums (e.g., Savor and Wilson, 2012; Dicke and Hess, 2012). It appears reasonable to assume that macroeconomic consensus forecasts represent market participants' expectations properly. So far available studies on forecast rationality at the consensus level largely test for general quality properties. They commonly find no evidence of systematic or persistent inefficiencies. In contrast to these previous studies, Campbell and Sharpe (2009) test for a specific behavioral inefficiency, the anchoring bias, first documented by Tversky and Kahneman (1974) in psychological experiments. Transferred to the context of macroeconomic forecasts, anchoring means that analysts put too much importance on last months' data and therefore underweight meanwhile released relevant information. This behavior implies a false incorporation of all available information into their forecasts. Consequently, a correction, i.e., the efficient use of the entire available information set would yield forecast improvements. Our analysis reveals a counter-intuitive result: We find strong statistical significance for anchoring in most macroeconomic forecast series, but applying a look-ahead bias free estimation and adjustment procedure leads to no systematic forecast improvements. Therefore, our results question the economical significance of the anchoring bias. To provide an explanation for the disconnection of statistical and economical significance, we decompose the anchoring bias test statistic and find that the test is biased itself. While the test assumes a univariate information environment, it neglects the possibility that analysts may provide superior forecasts by using a more comprehensive information set than just the univariate time series itself. Our empirical as well as our simulation results strongly support this explanation for a broad range of macroeconomic series. Our analysis contributes to different strands of literature. First, our results directly add to the scarce literature analyzing the efficiency of macroeconomic survey forecasts by showing that informational advantages of analysts, i.e., the incorporation of related macroeconomic data, enable them to outperform mechanically generated time series forecasts. Furthermore, our results provide motivation for other research areas, such as studies analyzing equity analysts' outputs, to control for a larger information set, for instance by including earnings information of related companies or information about overall business conditions. Second, our findings strongly support the assumption that macroeconomic survey forecasts represent a reasonable proxy measure for the anticipated information component in macroeconomic releases and consequently justify their use in the above mentioned research areas. Furthermore, our results highlight the danger to test for cognitive biases in a time series context which were previously only tested in controlled experiments. Especially when experiments are conducted in a highly regulated informational setting, i.e., when information given to test participants has to be strictly controlled for, as in anchoring bias experiments, it is questionable whether a direct transfer in a time series setting is possible at all. Future studies analyzing cognitive biases in time series frameworks have to consider carefully whether informational constraints might drive the results and lead to false conclusions. The first essay provides strong evidence for the quality of macroeconomic forecasts at the consensus level, the second essay deals with individual macroeconomic forecasts and analyzes why certain analysts provide better forecasts then others. In particular, we focus on the association between the idiosyncratic predictability of a given macroeconomic indicator and the relation between analyst characteristics and macroeconomic forecast accuracy. Obviously, there might be quality differences on the individual analyst level, i.e., there are more and less precise macroeconomic analysts. Exploiting these quality differences is a desirable task, because academics would obtain better proxy measures for market participants' expectations, and for investors an information advantage should translate into higher profits. We argue that if an indicator's idiosyncratic predictability is low, i.e., the series is almost not predictable, for instance due to information constrains and very volatile processes, then analysts' forecast performance is rather random than systematic because skills cannot take effect. In contrast, if a macroeconomic indicator has a high idiosyncratic predictability, then analysts with certain characteristics benefit from their abilities and skills, and generate more precise forecasts than less skilled analysts. Accordingly, for the unpredictable indicators the relation between analyst characteristics and forecast accuracy should be less pronounced than for the predictable ones. Consequently, we hypothesize that the idiosyncratic predictability of a certain macroeconomic indicator has to be taken into account whenever the relation between analyst characteristics and forecast accuracy is analyzed. So far there is only contradictory evidence concerning differences in individual forecast quality of macroeconomic analysts. While some studies provide evidence for different forecast quality among individual macroeconomic analysts (e.g. Zarnowitz, 1984; McNees, 1987; Zarnowitz and Braun, 1993; Kolb and Stekler, 1996; Brown et al., 2008) other articles come to the opposite conclusion (e.g. Stekler, 1987; Ashiya, 2006). Despite this disagreement, the relation between macroeconomic forecast accuracy differences and analyst characteristics has not been analyzed so far, although the extensive strand of literature analyzing the association of equity analyst characteristics and earnings per share forecast accuracy (e.g. Clement, 1999; Clement and Tse, 2005; Brown and Mohammad, 2010) provides a sound framework for an analysis. Most importantly, we find that model performance heavily depends on the idiosyncratic predictability of macroeconomic indicators. With decreasing idiosyncratic predictability the relevance of analyst characteristics for forecast accuracy diminishes for some characteristics and disappears for others. In terms of economic significance we find substantial differences between macroeconomic indicators with high and low idiosyncratic predictability. Consequently, our results show that the idiosyncratic predictability of a given forecast target has to be taken into account when the association between analyst characteristics and forecast accuracy is analyzed. Our findings have implications for different research areas. Most importantly we directly add to the literature analyzing individual macroeconomic analysts' forecast performance. We provide evidence that the idiosyncratic predictability of an indicator has to be taken into account if the relation between analyst characteristics and forecast accuracy is analyzed. Differentiation among analysts is only very limited if the figure to be forecasted is virtually unpredictable, because analysts do not benefit from their abilities and experiences. Systematic forecast accuracy differences arise if the forecast target is predictable at all and more skilled analysts have the opportunity to differentiate themselves form less skilled ones based on superior skills. Since there are differences in the predictability of company earnings our framework is transferable. Analogous to our findings for macroeconomic analysts, we expect that idiosyncratic predictability plays an equally important role analyzing the association between equity analysts' characteristics and their earnings per share forecast performance, i.e., for company earnings with higher idiosyncratic predictability we expect higher heterogeneity in forecast accuracy which can be explained by analyst characteristics. The first two essays provide evidence that macroeconomic predictions are in general of high quality as they incorporate rationally information from various sources. Besides the previously analyzed macroeconomic forecasts, agents such as politicians and employers, also heavily rely on other information, for example, on coincident and leading macroeconomic indicators. Determining the current state of the economy and obtaining sound projections about future overall macroeconomic developments plays an important role in their decision processes. Coincident and leading macroeconomic indicators incorporate a large set of macroeconomic variables as well as stock and bond market measures, e.g., returns and interest rate spreads. However, there is no evidence about how expectations at the microeconomic level relate to expectations at the macroeconomic level. Consequently, an aggregate of microeconomic expectation data, i.e., individual company expectations, are not included in coincident and leading macroeconomic indicators so far. To overcome this shortcoming we introduce a bottom-up approach that aggregates individual company expectations to derive macroeconomic content. Since the development of the entire economy is closely related to the development of its individual parts, among them individual companies, aggregated company information must contain macroeconomic information. Unfortunately, there is no database containing managements' expectations, however, we use equity analysts' outputs as proxy measure. Equity analysts' information sets comprise public macroeconomic-, industry- and company-specific content as well as non-public company-specific information (Grossman and Stiglitz, 1980) and is therefore arguably the best available proxy for managements' expectations. Regarding the choice of the best analyst's output we use recommendation changes instead of earnings per share (EPS) changes, because recommendations comprise more information. Besides the one year earnings estimate, recommendations also contain a series of future earnings expectations as well as interest rate and risk premium expectations. We show that aggregated recommendation changes as proxy measure for changing company outlooks have predictive power for overall economic developments. Our results provide evidence that aggregated recommendation changes, which approximate changing expectations about individual companies' economic prospects, have predictive power for future macroeconomic developments of about one year. Controlling for other well established macroeconomic predictors our results remain robust indicating that our measure contains additional independent information. Consequently, it seems promising to include our new predictor into the set of macroeconomic predictors in future applications. Additionally, we find that EPS changes have no predictive power lending support to our assumption that more forward looking information, as included in recommendation changes, is required if one attempts to forecast future macroeconomic developments. Furthermore, our findings provide the missing link between previous studies showing that aggregated analyst outputs have predictive power for overall stock market developments (Howe et al., 2009) and those showing that the stock market leads the real economy (Stock and Watson, 1998). Our results support the notion that changes in expectations about future company performance rationally determine asset values in advance of overall economic activity changes providing the explanation why stock markets lead the real economy. Overall, the three essays in this thesis advance different strands of literature. We show that macroeconomic consensus forecasts are a reliable proxy measure for market participants' expectations. Furthermore, our results provide strong evidence that it is dangerous to transfer psychological experiments into time series frameworks without appropriately controlling the informational environment. Additionally, we show that the idiosyncratic predictability of a given forecast objective, i.e. whether a forecast task is satisfyingly feasible at all, has to be taken into account whenever the association between analyst characteristics and forecast accuracy is analyzed. Macroeconomic analysts do only benefit from their superior skills compared to their competitors if the macroeconomic series is idiosyncratically predictable. For unpredictable series, forecast accuracy is rather random than systematic, because superior skills do not systematically translate in better forecasts. Finally, we show that the aggregation of forecasts on the microeconomic level, i.e., company expectations, is a promising approach to extract macroeconomic information. Overall, we conclude that macroeconomic analysts are very efficient information processors and play an important role as intermediaries in financial markets.

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: We are living in an internationalized world; global trade keeps increasing and more companies from many countries around the world are going national at an astounding rate. This is a reflection of strong economic growth around the world and the globalization of the economy and corporations. Offices are spread from one continent to another and travel is essential to business. This is the reason why "business travel is increasing," states Hubert Joly, president and chief executive officer of CWT. In today's business world, you might well find yourself as an international manager in a foreign subsidiary of an American firm, facing on a daily basis all aspects of international management. Or you could end up at the home office in Germany coordinating operations with foreign affiliates. Or you could travel to countries like Japan or China, negotiating export sales or dealing with suppliers, customers, or franchise parties. Many different kinds of positions are available in the global arena, and training in international and cross-cultural management and negotiation styles is becoming a critical ingredient in moving up to high-level positions in global organizations. "In 2006, a record 30.1 million U.S. travelers visited overseas markets, an increase of five percent from 2005." One of the top five overseas markets visited by U.S. travelers in 2006 was Germany. China (if combining travel the PRC and Hong Kong) would have tied as second. Contributing to the new record for outbound travel, seven of the top 20 U.S. outbound destination markets posted records in 2006, including Japan and China. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Germany owe their existence and sustainment to business travel. In Germany, the effects of a growing European Union and worldwide business travel create a stable demand for modern transport infrastructures and services. The USA is one of the two most important business travel destinations for the German economy, closely followed by China. Two markets will dominate travel interests in the future: the USA and China. No other countries will be as important for business trips as these two different giants. China's economy still enjoys a huge growing potential although its gross domestic product (GDP) has maintained a double-digit growth for four straight years and hit a new high of 10.7 in the first three quarters of 2006. The growth rate of China's labor productivity stood at 9.5 percent last year, beating all other countries across the world. Since undergoing reform and being made more open, however, the speed of economic development has increased by an average of about 10% each year for the past twenty years. The challenge is that even with all the good will in the world, miscommunication is likely to happen, especially when there are significant cultural differences between communicators, such as from the United States, Germany, China and Japan. Whatever the size or nature of a firm, it is clear that an increasing number of managers around the world will be involved in international business. That involvement will include both foreign and/or domestic assignments requiring interactions with people and firms from other countries. The objective of this thesis is to understand and improve the interaction of businessmen from the four largest economies of the world - the United States, Japan, Germany and China. Furthermore it is tried to explain, describe, and compare cultural differences, identify culturally communication and negotiation practices, and to use effective cross-cultural negotiation techniques and strategies within countries and cultures in international business settings. Knowing how even small differences in culture might cause huge misunderstandings in everyday business life, we can foresee them, and hopefully make better communication and negotiation with our business relations in other cultures.Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: Table of ContentsII List of FiguresIV List of TablesV List of AbbreviationsVI Introduction1 PART I Culture5 1.Definition of Culture5 2.Models to Classify Cultures7 2.1Cultural Dimensions according to Hofstede7 2.1.1Power Distance Index7 2.1.2Individualism - Collectivism8 2.1.3Uncertainty Avoidance Index8 2.1.4Masculinity - Femininity9 2.1.5Long-Term Orientation10 2.1.6Hofstede's Dimensions for the United States11 2.1.7Hofstede's Dimensions for Germany11 2.1.8Hofstede's Dimensions for Japan12 2.1.9Hofstede's Dimensions for China12 2.2The Iceberg Model of Culture13 2.3The Trompenaars' Model of Cultural Orientation14 PART II Negotiation and Communication Styles19 3.Time Conceptualization / Cultural Time Differences19 3.1Monochronic vs. Polychronic Time21 3.2Interactions between M-time and P-time Cultures24 3.3Working Times25 3.4Paid Annual Leave28 4.Nonverbal Communication31 4.1Body Language and Gestures31 4.2Greetings35 4.3Touch and Personal Space38 5.Cross-Cultural Etiquette42 5.1Table Etiquette / Table Manners42 5.2Dress Etiquette50 5.3Gift-Giving Etiquette53 6.The Do's and Don'ts of Business Behavior59 7.High-Context vs. Low-Context Cultures71 8.Face and Face Saving76 PART III Barriers to Cross-Cultural Communication83 9.Stereotypes and Prejudices83 9.1Definition of Stereotypes and Prejudices83 9.2Origins of Stereotypes87 9.3"Sophisticated" Stereotypes88 9.4Stereotypes Change90 10.Cross-Cultural Communication Problems92 10.1Language Difficulties92 10.2Cultural Barriers93 10.3Sentence Structure Differences94 10.4Nonverbal Communication Problems95 10.5Difficulties with Idioms95 10.6Reasons for Communication Problems97 10.6.1Potential Solutions98 Conclusion101 BibliographyVII Online SourcesXITextprobe:Text Sample: Chapter 3.3, Working Times: The working times and ethics of the four countries Japan, Germany, the United States and China differ greatly. In big Japanese cities, long working days (12 hours is typical) and long careers (a lifetime in the same company) are common. They use time to build harmonious agreements and harmonious relationships with each other. This means, effectively, putting people first. The Western visitor may think he is wasting yet more time on wining and dining after the official work day is over, while he is stuck between apparently inconclusive meetings and the final business decision.1 However, that time is everything but wasted. The kind of stiff patterns and conventions of Japanese office life fall away and the people can easier get in touch with each other. Japanese businessmen consider this also as a way to relieve business stress. The German view of time is extremely integrated with careful scheduling. Delegation, although practiced with thoroughness, usually has strings attached. This organization can make innovative decisions painful, since the subordinate's decision time with his boss is kept separate from his communication time with the business partner. The junior employee has full authority over an agreed and accorded range of decisions, but that range can never include the unexpected. If the employee takes the conservative way and blocks the upward progress of a surprise proposal of a foreign business partner, the answer they get to hear is always "I am not empowered to bring this matter to my boss's attention," the business negotiations are stuck. Even if German employees try the back door, and the boss likes the idea, he will be reluctant to overrule his subordinate. The economic emergency of the pas-war years when rules were frequently broken in order to get an urgent job done, was a long time ago. The German attitude to time is changing. Germans leave the office on time and keep themselves freehanded holidays. According to a senior manager of a German car firm: "Japanese competition is really unfair. We work efficiently; they work efficiently and long." Flexibility, enthusiasm, and teamwork are very important in the U.S. workplace. In general, Americans consider working and being productive very important and being busy as well as working extensively may also serve as their way of obtaining self-esteem. Speed in decision-making is in opposite proportion to bureaucracy. "North American industry is often hung on top-down decision-making systems; "why change a winning formula?" is a rhetorical question most frequently asked by the man at the top who invented the formula. For all their protestations about time being money, American middle managers frequently disappoint by their hesitations and procrastination." The decision making process of Chinese businessmen is slow. Foreigners should not expect to conclude their business quickly. Many Chinese will want to refer to the stars or wait for a lucky day before they make a decision. Basically nothing is possible without "guanxi" in China. "Guanxi" means "relations" and it stands for connections defined by reciprocity and mutual obligations." The basis of a contact varies. New relations must be raised intensively and carefully--for example, with invitations for dinners and with small favors or presents, as these will keep the relationship going. All business is personal: it is essential for success or failure to have "guanxi" and belong to a social network. The Chinese separate people into two groups: we and the others, no matter how it is in business life or in private life. Everything is based on reciprocal trust and accomplishment. The time it takes to establish such "guanxi" relationships is often underrated. Westerners should allow for adequate time in their business travels to establish and nurture their relations. Time spent by Western businessmen in building relationships is honored by the Chinese side. "The more time one invests in establishing good relations with business partners, the more important the partners feel and consequently the more face you give them." It is very difficult to compare the actual hours worked, because of a lack of uniform statistics. A major problem is that in some cases national figures distinguish between full- and part-time workers and in others they do not. Possibly, the best way of comparing working time among businessmen from Germany, Japan and the USA, is to look at annual working hours. The Japan Institute of Labor (JIL), based on several national figures, has produced estimates for annual total hours actually worked for Japan, the USA and Germany. The annual number of hours actually worked was 1,970 in Japan in 2000, which was virtually on par with the USA at 1,986 hours. Germany was far behind with 1,525 hours (1999). Therefore the average American worked about 450 hours more than the average German. Figures for average collectively agreed annual working hours are available from the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) for eight European Union (EU) countries where working time is measured on this basis, while JIL has produced figures for "scheduled" annual working hours in Japan and the USA. Allowing for differences in calculation methods, the Table 6 shows that the differences among the EU countries, Japan and the USA are generally far less when considering normal/scheduled hours than for actual hours. This indicates that the differences between Germany, Japan and the USA lie more in the overtime and additional hours worked. Chapter 3.4, Paid Annual Leave: The amount of paid annual leave to which workers are entitled is another important aspect of working time (a factor which obviously influences the annual duration of working time). In the EU, figures are available from EIRO for the average number of days of collective agreed annual leave. These show an average annual leave entitlement in 2001 of 25.7 days. Germans have a 30-day average. For Japan, figures are available from JIL on the average paid holiday entitlement, which were 18.0 days in 2000. Nevertheless, entitled holidays in Japan are actually not taken. In 2000, only 49.5% of annual leave entitlement (8.9 days) was taken on average. The latest figures available for the USA from the U.S. Department of Labor are the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). They refer to 2001 and cover "average vacation days" in the medium and large private sector. No total figure is available for all workers, but separate ones for varying lengths of service. Therefore, annual vacation days stood at 9.6 days at one year's service, 13.8 days at five years' service, 16.9 days at 10 years' service and 20.3 days at 20 years' service. Special attention has been given to the issue of extensive working hours in China, but the extent and nature of the situation has never been fully understood. There has not been much information provided on exactly what feelings the Chinese workers have towards their working time. Also, depending on the length of the service, the annual paid leave varies between 5 and 15 days. The standard of annual working hours has been estimated to be set as 2,000 hours. The weekly working hours of employees with local urban household registration were found to be 44.2 hours, making it the shortest working time. Employees with rural household registration had the longest weekly working time which was 48.4 hours. The variable time is much more complex than it is possible to convey. It influences the course of communications, and can be responsible for conflict or the escalation of conflict when it leads to miscommunication or misinterpretation. A culturally-fluent approach to conflict means working over time to understand these and other ways communication varies across cultures, and applying these understandings in order to enhance business relationships among those from different countries.

Throughout, the history of the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, natural resource wealth has been critical for its economies. Production of precious metals, sugar, rubber, grains, coffee, copper, and oil have at various periods of history made countries in Latin America-and their colonial powers-some of the most prosperous in the world. In some ways, these commodities may have changed the course of history in the world at large. Latin America produced around 80 percent of the world's silver in the 16th through 19th centuries, fueling the monetary systems of not only Europe, but China and India as well. The dramatic movements in commodity markets since the early 2000s, as well as the recent economic crisis, provide new data to analyze and also underscore the importance of a better understanding of issues related to boom-bust commodity cycles. The current pattern of global recovery has favored LAC so far. Countercyclical policies have supported domestic demand in the larger LAC economies, and external demand from fast-growing emerging markets has boosted exports and terms of trade for LAC's net commodity exporters. Prospects for LAC in the short term look good. Beyond the cyclical rebound, however, the region's major longer-run challenge going forward will be to craft a bold productivity agenda. With LAC coming out of this crisis relatively well positioned, this may well be possible, especially considering that the region's improved macro-financial resiliency gives greater assurance that future gains from growth will not be wiped out by financial crises. In addition, LAC has been making significant strides in the equity agenda and this could help mobilize consensus in favor of a long overdue growth-oriented reform agenda. But it remains to be seen whether the region will be able to seize the opportunity to boost long-run growth, especially considering the large gaps that LAC would need to close in such key areas as saving, human capital accumulation, physical infrastructure, and the ability to adopt and adapt new technologies.

The World Bank's Debtor Reporting System (DRS), from which the aggregates and country tables presented in this report are drawn, was established in 1951. The debt crisis of the 1980s brought increased attention to debt statistics and to the World debt tables, the predecessor to Global development finance. Now the global financial crisis has once again heightened awareness in developing countries of the importance of managing their external obligations. International capital flows to the 128 developing countries reporting to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System (DRS) fell by 20 percent in 2009 to $598 billion (3.7 percent of Gross National Income (GNI), compared with $744 billion in 2008 (4.5 percent of GNI) and a little over half the peak level of $1,111 billion realized in 2007. Private flows (debt and equity) declined by 27 percent despite a rebound in bond issuance, portfolio equity flows, and short-term debt flows. Both foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and bank lending fell precipitously. By contrast, the net inflow of debt-related financing from official creditors (excluding grants) rose 175 percent as support was stepped up to low- and middle-income countries severely affected by the global financial crisis.

In 2012, the World Bank signed five agreements with MRDPA for advisory services, out of which one relates to the growth poles policy and to its improvement for the programming period 2014-2020. This agreement has three components: 1) an analysis of the growth poles policy, 2) energy efficiency studies for each growth pole; and 3) a review of the Integrated Development Plans prepared by the growth poles for the period 2007-2013. In this context, South Muntenia Regional Development Agency, through the coordinator of Ploiești Growth Pole, requested the World Bank, under a project funded by ERDF through the Technical Assistance Operational Program 2007-2013, to support the Growth Pole in implementing the recommendations stemming from the previous analysis with: 1) updating the Integrated Development Plan for 2014-2020; and 2) proposing an improved institutional framework for coordinating the planning, implementation and monitoring of projects under this plan. The current document of the Integrated Development Plan belonging to Ploiești Growth Pole was developed during the period 2008-2009 and approved and submitted to South Muntenia RDA in April 2010. It contains a total number of 93 projects with a total value of RON 5,136,143,583.91, out of which 762,515,322.81 are EU funds, and the remainder comes from the national budget and the beneficiaries' own contribution. In the process of updating the plan, the implementation status of these projects will be studied further, while attention will be also given to the unimplemented projects in order to see whether they will be included in the documentation, depending on their response to the new development conditions of the growth pole.

Chinas economic growth continues to moderate, in 2014 gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 7.4 percent, within the governments indicative growth target of about 7.5 percent for the year, but sharply slower than the 10 percent annual growth rate china averaged for three consecutive decades. An orderly correction in real estate - reflecting policy efforts to reduce supply mismatches and tighten nonbank credit - continues to weigh on economic activity. Ongoing adjustments in real estate, a buildup of excess capacity, and decelerating export growth are affecting industrial activity. In contrast growth in services remained robust as composition of growth continues to improve.

Lebanon faces serious challenges from a volatile security environment and spillovers from the ongoing Syrian conflict which pose serious risks to an already fragile internal political situation. Security incidents have become increasingly more common and the volatile security environment is weakening consumer and investor sentiments and adversely affecting tourism, a central contributor to economic growth and employment in Lebanon. The influx of Syrian refugees to Lebanon persists, with officially registered refugees reaching close to 1 million (i.e., 21.6 percent of Lebanon's pre-conflict population), which poses significant fiscal, health and educational challenges.