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The study was undertaken with the objective of assessing factors affecting milk market outlet choices in Wolaita zone, Ethiopia. Using farm household survey data from 394 households and Multinomial Logit Model, milk market outlet choices were analyzed. Multinomial Logit model results indicate that compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet, the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet was lower among households who owned large number of cows, those who considered price offered by cooperative lower than other market outlets and those who wanted payment other than cash mode. The likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet was higher for households who were cooperative member, who owned large landholding size, who had been in dairy farming for many years and who received better dairy extension services. Compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet, the likelihood of accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet was lower among households who were at far away from urban center and higher among households who accessed better dairy extension services and who owned large number of dairy cows. As one of the key factors to boost milk market outlet choices, dairy extension services should be strengthened through redesigning or reforming implementation strategies or improving/strengthening existing policy. It should be strengthened to enable farmers produce surplus milk for markets and should devise means to reduce local milking cow numbers by replacing them with crossbred cows. Moreover, governments should strengthen milk processing cooperatives and improve infrastructure facilities.

This study was conducted to identify factors affecting packed and unpacked fluid milk consumption preferences of households in Wolaita zone. A total of 194 randomly sampled consumer households of 3 towns of Waliata zone were studied using semi-structured questionnaire. All the data collected were analyzed using Multinomial Logit Model. The result obtained indicated that 78.4% of the households consumed only unpacked fluid milk, 7.7% of households consumed only packed fluid milk and 13.9% of households consumed both unpacked and packed fluid milk. Multinomial Logit model results showed that variables such as age of household heads, income level of households, households with at least a child under six years of age and milking cow, households who disagree with the statement 'packed fluid milk fattens children' and households who disagree with the statement 'advertisement influences people to buy more packed fluid milk', significantly affected consumption of unpacked fluid milk. Education status of household heads, young aged household heads, medical prescription, households who accept the statement 'sterilized milk contains preservatives' reported to have consumed packed fluid milk. Moreover, consumers who agree with the statement 'price of packed fluid milk is expensive compared with unpacked fluid milk' were less likely to consume packed fluid milk. The general implication is that a significant portion of unpacked fluid milk is reported to be consumed in the study area without quality and hygienic inspection. This situation seems to warrant the governments to introduce new policy tools to improve the hygiene and quality of unpacked fluid milk. Milk producing and processing companies need to design better pricing, promotion and advertising strategies for fluid milk consumption to attract consumers. Furthermore, fluid milk processing enterprises and importers need to improve their processing technological status aimed at reducing cost of processing and marketing to attract consumers.

Modern primary industry makes obsolete the conventional analysis of private and social performance. This is due to the dominance of chain failure as opposed to the more familiar market failure. This paper makes the case that value addition dominates aspirations for primary industries, and vertical coordination and shifts in commercial power balances feature in the sharing of benefits within value chains. Moreover, complexity in chain relationships and some particular features of primary industry bring challenges to forward planning and concerted effort. Value addition in New Zealand's forestry and wood products' industry presents several such challenges, and these are examined with a qualitative system dynamics model. Potential policy responses that eliminate chain failure are discussed in association with the Australian beef industry research model. The paper advocates joint industry‐university‐government action in terms of research and skills development. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Pakistan is going through a severe energy crisis due to an increasing gap between demand and supply. Its current energy needs are heavily dependent upon conventional thermal power plants which mainly use oil and gas. In addition to the economic problems associated with importing oil for Pakistan, the burning of fossil fuels for the production of electricity releases vast amounts of greenhouse gases. As an alternative to the current scenario, in this paper the energetic and economic performance of green energy technologies such as photovoltaic (PV), parabolic trough collector (PTC) with and without storage, and wind energy systems are analyzed and compared with respect to their potential for electricity generation for the city of Multan, Pakistan. Each system is designed taking a nominal 10 MWe capacity as a reference. Hourly meteorological data are used to estimate hourly insolation on a fixed PV module and for PTCs with East-West and North-South tracking. Results show that PV and PTC systems without storage have approximately the same output with capacity factors of approximately 20%. The electrical energy output of the wind turbines was very low with a capacity factor of similar to 2%. PTCs with 7.5 h storage and a solar multiple of 3.5 showed the best result for electrical energy output with a capacity factor of 46%. A cost analysis is performed assuming a 30 year lifetime for PV and a 35 year lifetime for PTC The Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) is found to be 0.192 USD/kWh for PV systems, 0273 USD/kWh for PTC systems without storage, and 0.226 USD/kWh for PTC systems with 7.5 h of storage. The results of the economic study show that based strictly on economic considerations green energy technologies can be utilized if the government supports the investment by giving incentives and subsidies. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pakistan is going through a severe energy crisis due to an increasing gap between demand and supply. Its current energy needs are heavily dependent upon conventional thermal power plants which mainly use oil and gas. In addition to the economic problems associated with importing oil for Pakistan, the burning of fossil fuels for the production of electricity releases vast amounts of greenhouse gases. As an alternative to the current scenario, in this paper the energetic and economic performance of green energy technologies such as photovoltaic (PV), parabolic trough collector (PTC) with and without storage, and wind energy systems are analyzed and compared with respect to their potential for electricity generation for the city of Multan, Pakistan. Each system is designed taking a nominal 10 MWe capacity as a reference. Hourly meteorological data are used to estimate hourly insolation on a fixed PV module and for PTCs with East-West and North-South tracking. Results show that PV and PTC systems without storage have approximately the same output with capacity factors of approximately 20%. The electrical energy output of the wind turbines was very low with a capacity factor of similar to 2%. PTCs with 7.5 h storage and a solar multiple of 3.5 showed the best result for electrical energy output with a capacity factor of 46%. A cost analysis is performed assuming a 30 year lifetime for PV and a 35 year lifetime for PTC The Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) is found to be 0.192 USD/kWh for PV systems, 0273 USD/kWh for PTC systems without storage, and 0.226 USD/kWh for PTC systems with 7.5 h of storage. The results of the economic study show that based strictly on economic considerations green energy technologies can be utilized if the government supports the investment by giving incentives and subsidies.

The role of agency in women's empowerment, whether individual or collective, has long been at the center of feminist discourse. Although, highly context dependent, studies on agency are less contextualized. Based on mixed methods, we generated in-depth understandings of what constitutes agency in livestock-based institutions, and associated contextual factors across three regions. Agency, the ability to make effective participation, conceptualization is based on four main dimensions, in turn associated with key agency enabling resources. The agency-enabling resources such as years of schooling, land holding, sheep flock size, number of women in the leadership committee, along with location and distance to extension services variables were associated with the ability to effectively participate. Study participants are aware of the influence of normative environment but lack the power to challenge it. If supported and used as a means, the collective action, breeding cooperative, itself could potentially generate its members such power.