Archives-December 

England is as old as Methuselah. Historians can tell better. Nevertheless, agricultural historians can bear me witness that English agriculture has come of age. Under conventional conditions a generation is equivalent to one century. Therefore, eight generations require eight centuries. The question is what has made an island country conspicuous in the agricultural map of the world. Let us take a look .

The retail sector has played a phenomenal role throughout the world in increasing productivity of consumer goods and services. The India Retail Industry is the largest among all the industries. Modern retail industry plays an important and vital role in the economies of all modern societies. All the big business houses are entering in this sector and it is growing at a very past pace. The present study leads to explore the changing face of Indian Retail Industry in India. This paper also focuses on the shift of consumers from unorganized retail to organized retail. The retailing industry, which, until the early 1990s, was dominated by the unorganized sector, witnessed a rapid growth in the organized sector with the entry of corporate groups such as Tata, RPG, ITC and Bennett Coleman & Company into the retailing market. Retailing in India is progressively inching its way to becoming the next roar industry. The whole concept of shopping has tainted in terms of layout and consumer buying behavior, ushering in a uprising in shopping. Modern retail has entered India as seen in rambling shopping centers, multi-storied malls and huge complexes offer shopping, entertainment and food all under one roof. The changes in the organized retail industry are visible in the form of new retailing formats, modern techniques, exclusive retail outlets, emergence of retail chains etc. Shopping in India has witnessed a revolution with the change in consumer buying behavior and the format of shopping. The retail industry in India has modernized , and this can be seen from the fact that there are multi stored malls , huge shopping centre’s and sprawling complexes , which offer food , shopping & entertainment all under the same roof. Now the purchasing power of Indian urban consumer is growing. Increased availability of retail space, rapid urbanization, and qualified manpower also boosted the growth of the organized retailing sector . Apart from this, social changes such as increase in the number of nuclear families and the growing number of working couples resulting in increased spending power also contributed to the increase in the Indian consumers’ personal consumption.

The issue of labour turnover is central to many current related debates in economics, public policies and more so in human resources management. Monitoring of flow of employees in and out of the organization is crucial for the survival of many organizations. The critical in the operation of many businesses is labour which constitute human resources. This is because the cost of labour makes up the largest proportion of the operational cost of business and organization. The main objective was to determine the demographic factors that influence labour turnover among Micro Finance Institutions in Kenya. The study employed descriptive survey design method. The study was conducted in selected Microfinance Institutions within the Nairobi city centre. The target population was the supervisors and subordinates of the MFIs. The study targeted 24 MFIs, supervisors and subordinates. Stratified random sampling was used to identify a sample of Six MFIs. Two supervisors and three subordinates were sampled. The main instrument for data collection was questionnaire which had both structured and unstructured questions. Secondary data was collected through annual reports. Pilot study was done and test retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instruments. Data analysis was done using SPSS and data presented inform of frequencies, percentages, tables and graphical presentations.

The study examined the economic impact of Tinapa Business Resort and the Export Processing Zone on economic diversification in Calabar, Cross River State. The study looks at the importance of Tinapa Business Resort and Export Processing Zone in economic diversification of the State economy within Calabar. The study adopted the survey research design and data was collected through the use of questionnaires administered on the staff of Tinapa Business Resort, the Export Processing Zone and members of the host communities. The study used descriptive statistics in analysing the data and the chi-square test was used to test the hypothesis formulated. The findings from the study show that Tinapa Business Resort and the Export Processing Zone have contributed to the economic diversification of Cross River State through generation of foreign exchange earnings, attracting of Foreign Direct Investment and tourism into the state. Furthermore, the study reveals that Tinapa Business Resort and the Export Processing Zone have affected the lives of the host communities through employment and the provision of basic infrastructure. Based on the findings, the study recommends the dredging of the Calabar Sea Port in order to attract more economic activities into the State and the proper funding Tinapa Business Resort to enable it fulfilled its vision of being Africa’s Business hub in global trading and exportation of goods.

The institution of Zakah is considered significant by being one of the five pillars of Islam and especially for its multiple references in the Qur’an immediately after Salah. Upon this, great scholars of Islamic jurisprudence either in the past or present have written extensively to demonstrate its religious importance, philosophy, rules and regulations. However, contemporary Muslim scholars who are grounded in Islamic knowledge and economics are now bringing its economic significance to the limelight. Thus, an attempt has been made in this paper to explore and present the fiscal characteristics and dynamics of the institution of Zakah, which makes it a potent fiscal tool, particularly as a source of public revenue, a determinant of expenditure and as an automatic stabilizer in an Islamic economic framework. Therefore, this paper argues that the institution of Zakah has the fiscal potency to stimulate the economic growth of Muslim countries, if and only if it is properly incorporated into the central public economic plan of Muslim economies and given all the necessary legislations and conducive atmosphere to operate.

The duct model used here is that Kahan and Eckart [1950]. The source of the electromagnetic field is taken to a vertical magnetic dipole in the upper surface layer, with an arbitrary time – varying moment , we can determine the transient behaviour of the electric field strength at any distance above the duct .The paper presents a method which allows the calculation of the atmospheric distortion of radar pulse , provided that the influence of the atmosphere is to transfer the transmitted signal through a duct .the polarization of the primary source whose moment varies arbitrarily in time, is chosen in such a way that it allows the exact determination of the electric field strength at some field point above the duct layer .From the physical point of view. Cahniard s idea is applicable as it is based on evaluating the field in a series of image sources of the primary source. The step – function solution of the problem can then be determined as an infinite integrals over finite integrals. Two cases would be distinguished on the basis of the distance between the receiving and transmitting ends and whether it is greater or lesser than the total reflection distance.

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of teachers’ workload on learners’ academic performance in secondary schools in Keiyo South Sub-County. The study adopted cross-sectional research design by use of concurrent mixed methodology. The target population for the study was 31 principals and 347 teachers. Stratified simple random sampling and purposive sampling method was used to select the respondents’ teachers and principals respectively. This implies that 31 head teachers and 182 teachers participated in this study. The validity of research instruments was ascertained by in-depth discussion with the expert judgement before proceeding to the field. Reliability of the instruments was also ascertained through test-retest method at an interval of two weeks to respondents who did not participate in the actual study. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis. The quantitative and qualitative data collected was collected and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics; Descriptive statistics involved the use of frequencies and percentages while inferential statistics involved the use of Pearson Correlation Analysis and the qualitative data was analysed thematically and presented in narrative form. The found out that reducing teachers’ workload could enhance students’ academic performance. Similarly, there was a statistically significant and negative relationship between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance in secondary schools. The study recommended that there is need for TSC to increase the number of teachers in secondary schools to reduce teachers’ workload since high teachers’ workload translates to ineffective teaching leading to poor students’ academic performance.

Natural gas represents one of the significant resources. It is often considered as a political power by which some of the countries can gain the goals. Nowadays Russia is one of the richest countries with natural gas reserves and production. Russia is a key natural gas supplier for EU member countries. Because of some political reasons Russia reduced gas transporting to Europe to impact on it. Europe tries to find ways out of these crucial situation and problem. The present work aim is to analyze the last year’s gas reduction and their influence on European energy market. Its purpose is also to define Iran as an alternative source of natural gas of Russia for EU. According to the statistical data, in 2016 Iran took the first place in natural gas reserves and Russia took the second one. But in 2017 visa versa. This will help Europe to diversify energy suppliers, reduce Russian influence on it and cooperate with Iran in energy sector.

Contract Farming (CF) is one of the major High Impact Project of the Malaysian government in order to be more effective in supplying fruits product and to provide enough land to produce it with collaboration and cooperation of eight government agencies where Federal Agriculture Marketing Agency (FAMA) acts as project manager. The reason for choosing watermelon production in Kelantan is due to the fact that the state has the highest number of participants involved under contract farming and the major crop produce in Kelantan is the watermelon. One of the objectives of this study is to determine the relationship between aspect of technical transfer and farmer’s productivity in contract farming. Projects implementation of agricultural development needs the efficient and effective service support. The result showed that there is significant relationship between all independent variables studied. Results indicated that the highest percentage response on aspect of technical transfer and a significant relationship between aspects of technology transfer and watermelon output.

Lack of appropriate technology, difficulty of measuring bed load and unclear boundary between bed load and suspended load induce experts to determine a part of suspended load as bed load. This ratio in many rivers with different conditions has the same coefficient and sometimes in a river, different experts estimate various ratios. In this study, two reach of Taleghan and Jajroud rivers was selected to determine the ratio, while stream flow was simulated by HEC-RAS software in both reaches. Bed load was calculated by Meyer-Peter-Muller, Casey, Schoklitch and Van Rijn equations, and Einstein, Chang-Simons-Richardsin, Begnold and Toffalati equations were used to estimate suspended load. After validation of equations, results showed that in both rivers, Schoklitch equation provides the best estimation for bed load. For suspended load, the Einstein and the Bagnold equations provided the best estimation for Jajroud and Taleghan rivers, respectively. R and Re tests and selecting of best equations for estimation of bed and suspended loads showed that bed load to suspended load ratio was about 3.76 and 0.14 in Jajroud and Taleghan rivers, respectively.