TY - THES A1 - Ciornii, Stanislav T1 - Competitive advantage N2 - The competitive advantage within certain market directly depends on the composition and characteristics of resources/capabilities that are possessed by competing organizations. This is the reason, why it is so significant to realize what enterprises have and what they do, or could implement well. Thus, have been elaborated several concepts (including Resource Based View) for analyzing and understanding such complex information. Y1 - 2018 ER - TY - THES A1 - Gondokusumo, Jasmine T1 - The Impact of Commoditization on Competitor Landscapes and Measures to Win the Power Play (A case study of vitamin D3 industry) N2 - Synthetic vitamin industry is commoditizing. Vitamin companies should be aware of the commoditization phenomenon in order to stay competitive. By knowing the right strategy, vitamin producers can retain market share and still maintain profit in a commoditizing market. There is an increasing competition from the new entrants. Most of them are coming from Asian countries with the advantage of lower production cost. As a result, they oversupply the market with lower price products and change the product value proposition. They take incumbents’ market share gradually, starting from the mass market. This thesis utilized qualitative approach to examine the problem. The author conducted interviews with representatives from BASF to provide internal perspectives, and BASF’s customer to provide external perspective. In order to assess the countermeasure that has been done by other companies, comparative case studies was deployed. Vitamin C industry case study was used as a base to understand the commoditization in vitamin D3 industry. As a result, similar commoditization pattern can be seen in vitamin D3 industry. However, vitamin D3 industry is not commoditizing at the same pace as vitamin C industry due to different market size and complexity of production. In the formulation stage, commoditization rate of vitamin D3 product depends on the product form. The strategies to face commoditization revolved around the aspects of positioning, relationship, image, efficiency, pricing and innovation. KW - Commoditization Y1 - 2020 ER - TY - THES A1 - Ostrick, Manuela T1 - The challenge of professionalization vs. social capital orientation in agricultural cooperatives- A case study of agricultural supply cooperatives in North-Rhine-Westphalia N2 - Many studies have been conducted in the northern part of Europe, especially in Sweden. This thesis is conducted to get an impression on the actual position of cooperatives in Germany. To be specific in North-Rhine-Westphalia where several cooperatives have been founded and become major player in the agribusiness sector. However, this was not by accident, but a response to the requirements of the famers in this region. Those coops have been developed in the Münsterland, a region north-west located in NRW which is famous for their intensive livestock-business and small amount of arable land, and in general is the home of small, structured family-farms. In the past, cooperatives have been the only one to provide information and products to the farmers in this region. Due to those circumstances the farmers in this region have a strong attachment to “their coops”. As a result of this specialty several joint ventures of cooperatives have been observed. The objective of this thesis is to examinate the perspective of social capital orientation of two expert-groups which can be shared into two different experts-groups prominent supply cooperatives in North Rhine-Westphalia. KW - Social capital KW - Agricultural supply cooperatives Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - THES A1 - Erfkämper, Svenja T1 - Growth Rates of different Poplar Clones in Central Asia N2 - Land degradation and especially the degradation of cropland is of great environmental concern worldwide. This problem is prevalent in the Central Asian countries as well. A viable solution for this and further environmental issues would be the cultivation of a fast-growing tree species, such as poplar. Several poplar cultivars were tested on plots in Almaty, Bishkek and Khorog. The performance of the trees was assessed by investigating growth in terms of height and diameter, death rate, being bent down, pest infestation, and phenology. The influence of environmental conditions and the influence of genotype were discussed. Both factors significantly influenced height, diameter at breast height and Death Rate. For basal diameter and diameter in 2m height, the location was the single influencing variable. For characteristic of being bent down, cultivar was the single influencing variable. For the percentage of trees that were infested by pest as well as for the extend of pest infestation none of the factors were seen as having an influence. Even though there are some bio-physical and socio-economic constraints, there are many opportunities for the cultivation of poplars in Central Asia. Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - THES A1 - Tem Beng, Donald T1 - The Root and Tuber Crop Value Chain in Cameroon: An Analysis of its Structure and Performance N2 - The aim of this study was to analyse the structure and performance of the root and tuber crop value chain in Cameroon. The study area included the North-west, Southwest, Littoral, Central and West regions of Cameroon. Data was collected through surveys and interviews with key informants and between the months of March and August 2021. A sample of 457 Value chain actors com-prising 163 farmers, 105 traders, 70 processors and 119 consumers was se-lected through a simple random sampling procedure. Secondary data was col-lected from published studies and from some officials of the Ministry of Agricul-ture. Data analysis was done using Microsoft Excel. Social Network Analysis, Functional institutional Analysis and the French Systematic method were used to analyse the structure of the value chain. Demographic and production char-acteristics were analysed by means of descriptive statistics. Profitability analy-sis was used to determine the profit margins of value chain actors. The results of the study revealed that 47% of farmers were males and 53% were females and that 77.1 % of traders and 65.3% of processors had attained at least sec-ondary level of education. Farm sizes ranged from 0.4 – 3 hectares and 81% them practiced mixed cropping. The shortest marketing (from farmers – con-sumer) was the most used channel. The calculated average yield of cassava was 9.25 t/ha and that for sweet potatoes was 7.65 t/ha. Pre-harvest loss stood at 4.7% and the total post-harvest loss was 17.6% for sweet potatoes and 5.8% for cassava. The gross profit per hectare for cassava farmers was 63,069 FCFA and for sweet potato farmers it was 697,134 FCFA. The monthly gross profits for cassava traders (469,342 FCFA) were greater than that of processors (212,587 FCFA). The overall performance of the value chain was considered low due to poor record keeping, low profit margins, high percentage of post-harvest losses, few number of processed products, and poor chain governance KW - Root and tuber crops KW - Cassava KW - Sweet potatoes KW - Value chain KW - Agricultural value chain KW - Agriculture in Cameroon KW - Cassava-based products in Cameroon Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - THES A1 - Islam, Md Ariful T1 - Business Diversification through honey production and marketing: An analysis of Gamerschlagshof GmbH, Xanten N2 - Over the past century, by the evaluation of the business, business diversification has a significant part in any business sector, especially in agribusiness sectors. The study's primary goal is to review business expansion through honey production and market analysis of Gamerschlagshof GmbH. The data were collected from the study area. A beekeeper was interviewed for getting necessary data to determine the costs and profit of honey production and review to expand the honey business. Sixty consumers were randomly selected to interview for getting market information of honey. The results show that the beekeeper owned 18 beehives and earned 2852.32 euro as a gross profit per year. It indicates that this business is potential for the future, and it is an excellent opportunity for honey business in the study area based on socioeconomic context and some unique features of the farm. The beekeeper identifies some obstacles, and they have implications for some solutions also. Finally, the reacher has given some recommendations to expand the honey business in Gamerschlagshof GmbH. Keywords: Business diversification, Honey, Production and marketing honey, Profitability, challenges, and opportunities. Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - THES A1 - Ndour, Barbara T1 - Sustainable development of agriculture and food micro, small and medium enterprises in Africa through women empowerment N2 - The African continent is faced with a rapid population growth. This rapid population growth has brought with it the challenges of poverty and food insecurity. Since agriculture and food production are the backbone of food security, there is need to make farms and enterprises operating in that sector sustainable to meet the current food demand. In Africa, most agriculture and food production is conducted by MSMEs. Therefore, taking an inventory of the main actors of agriculture and food activities within the MSMEs is important to broaden and amplify the gains from agriculture and food production. Many studies indicated that women have a high participation rate in the agriculture and food sector in Africa. However, other studies also suggested that women in the agriculture and food sector are economically and socially disempowered due to various gender based discriminations thus decreasing the productivity of agriculture and food MSMEs in Africa. In order to analyse how women empowerment can contribute to the sustainable development of the MSMEs in Africa, a survey study was conducted. The goal of the survey was to identify challenges faced by women in the agriculture and food MSMEs as well as to identify if being a woman employee or a woman entrepreneur increases or decreases women’s vulnerability to the challenges. The findings of the surveys revealed that women are subjected to gender based discrimination that include lack of access to training and financial support. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - THES A1 - Kalyanam, Thanmai Sai T1 - The Environmental Impact of Urban Agricultural Technologies Determined Using Life Cycle Assessment Method – A Systematic Review N2 - Urban Agriculture (UA) is identified as a sustainable solution to address urban food security challenges compounded by the exponential increase in urban population. Moreover, UA largely mitigates the negative impacts associated with conventional agriculture systems such as soil degradation, high resource usage, crop sensitivity towards climate change, and high fertilizer usage. UA is often complimented for its significant potential for producing higher yield nevertheless, for extensive use of UA, an in-depth understand- ing of its environmental impacts is required. For any UA methodology, environmental performance acts as a promising factor in promoting agriculture sustainability. This study performs critical analyses of available literature on UA techniques using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA provides a comprehensive understanding of UA’s environmental footprint across different stages of its life cycle. LCA facilitates the quantification of eco- logical impacts associated with various UA approaches, including vertical farming, roof- top farming, hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics. This study utilizes a systematic review methodology, incorporating the PRISMA model, to conduct a comprehensive data collection process aimed at identifying the LCA of diverse UA methods and their associated impacts. The review addresses the following questions: How does LCA help in quantifying the environmental impacts of UA? What is the environmental performance of different UA techniques? The findings demonstrated that nearly every form of UA exhibited a notable advantage in yield, and efficiency in water usage and land usage. Specifically, aeroponics stands out for its superior performance in yield and water usage efficiency, albeit with elevated energy demands. Hydroponics and aquaponics showcase advantages in reduced water usage and fertilizer requirements. Vertical farms, due to their structural and Controlled Environment (CE) prerequisites, present as energy-intensive systems with higher Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In contrast, rooftop farms, making use of under-utilised urban spaces, emerge as a balanced system with moderate energy consumption and GHG emissions. The environmental impact of UA techniques varies based on factors such as structure, operational components, crop selection, and the integration of innovative technologies, resulting in diverse outcomes when compared to conventional soil-based farms. This review recommended an extensive LCA of UA techniques, innovation to existing methodologies, urban reforms, and increased awareness about UA. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - THES A1 - Sarmiento Gonzalez, Maria Angelica T1 - Sustainable commercialization of Baru in the Cerrado: mapping its Value Chain for rural livelihood enhancement N2 - Land-use transformation and insufficiently protected areas have led to extensive deforestation and conversion of native vegetation for croplands and pastures in the Cerrado, Brazil’s second-largest ecosystem and one of the world’s biggest biodiversity hotspots. The sustainable harvesting and commercialization of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) offer a potential alternative, contributing to sustainable development by enhancing rural livelihoods, promoting environmental conservation, fostering economic diversification, empowering vulnerable socio-economic groups, and encouraging sustainable resource management. Among Cerrado's promising NTFPs is the Baru nut (Dipteryx alata), a nutrient-dense product rich in protein, fiber, zinc, and healthy oils, with potential therapeutic applications for various health issues. Its unique composition and versatility present an opportunity for sustainable commercialization that enhances rural livelihoods while promoting health benefits. Incorporating Baru-related products into local, national, and international markets could diversify economic opportunities while maintaining environmentally sustainable practices in both production and commercialization. Despite its potential, research on Baru remains scarce, creating a knowledge gap in the dynamics and challenges of its value chain. This study addresses this gap by employing a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the financial performance of each stage of the Baru value chain and identify existing challenges and market opportunities. Focused on Arinos, Minas Gerais, the research incorporates 29 interviews with local value chain actors, 14 supplementary interviews with institutional stakeholders, and secondary data analysis. The findings reveal a fragmented and predominantly informal value chain at the local level, faced with challenges such as physically intensive work, unreliable demand, power imbalances, low-profit margins, and limited institutional support. This research proposes strategies to foster collaboration, equity, transparency, and sustainable development of Baru’s value chain and contributes to a deeper understanding of this NTFP. Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - THES A1 - Sund, Louiza T1 - The potential of direct marketing within the transformation process to sustainable farming in Lower Saxony, Germany N2 - Family farms present the majority of farms worldwide, and their survival is crucial to support the growing world population. Preventing those farms from disappearing is therefore very important. These family farms face many challenges like high investments and high price volatility. Diversification in form of direct marketing can be one way to reduce these risks. Objective was to determine the state of direct marketing usage, faced challenges in a direct marketing system, which role counselling services play in that scenario and how farmers perceive sustainability in general and in context with direct marketing. These objectives were reviewed with a quantitative study conducted by an anonymous online survey. Provided to farmers of Lower Saxony by counselling rings, network “LandTouristik Niedersachsen”, network “Kompetenzzentrum Ökolandbau Niedersachsen” and the Chamber of Agriculture. Direct marketing usage had increased over the last years and did not depend on the way of farming. On farm direct marketing solutions like a farm shop were most popular, most likely because it can be a low-cost solution. Bureaucracy, marketing and economic viability are the major challenges in direct marketing systems and correlate with reasons why direct marketing was not used. These presented a clear work order for government, science and counselling services, and show a high potential in increasing farm sustainability. Counselling services presented to be only used if free options were exploited, which emphasized the importance of high quality counselling offers. Overall, on-farm factors stood in favor for diversification and in combination with the as important stated status of sustainability for farmers, direct marketing most likely holds potential to positively impact the transformation to sustainable farming in Lower Saxony. Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:1383-opus4-21921 ER - TY - THES A1 - Shuja Ud Din, Aneeba T1 - "SCHOOL FEEDING AND PUBLIC FOOD PROCUREMENT PROGRAMS AS A POLICY INSTRUMENT TO PROMOTE SMALLHOLDER FARMING AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS – A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW N2 - Family farms and smallholders have been kept out of the market niche due to their competition with larger multinational corporations. Smallholder farmers can enter the food market easily by linking them with school feeding programs. National school feeding programs exist globally. However, food quality is a major factor in the success of these programs in enhancing student nutrition. This offers opportunities for family farms to supply nutritious, local organic produce to regional schools and gain access to the food market in urban areas. Students and farmers can benefit from this integration along with all supply chain contributors. Nevertheless, proper management of these supply chains, programs, and farms is a necessity. In this review, the impacts of local procurement for school meal programs are discussed with data from different national programs. Perspectives of farmers, distributors, school management, students, and parents are discussed to assess the advantages of buying from family farms. Challenges faced in the process of procurement from smallholders and associated risks are also examined. Social actors including producers, distributors, consumers, and government that participated in these studies give their opinions on school feeding programs. The main problems arise from the lack of budget and incentives available to farms and faulty logistics that can affect quality and quantity of school meals. Organizational strategies to promote sustainable supply chains and investment in agriculture policies are practical solutions for these challenges. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - THES A1 - Decher, Isabelle T1 - Analysing Marketing Strategies of Agroforestry-Grown Walnuts: Lessons for the Lower Rhine Region N2 - Agroforestry (AFS) could help fight climate change by sequestering carbon (Nair et al., 2021). However, few markets accurately reflect the value of agroforestry products, posing a barrier to farmers implementing AFS (Litschel et al., 2023). In addition, while AFS could i.e. help the Lower Rhine Region reduce nitrate pollution, there is little research on AFS in this region. This thesis aims to reduce these barriers to AFS in the Lower Rhine Region by developing a marketing strategy for one promising agroforestry product: walnuts (Juglans regia). To do this, consumer prices of 62 walnut products from 15 stores in the Kleve area were collected over 46 days to gain an insight into the local market. Secondly, expert interviews were conducted with three German walnut producers to assess their marketing strategies. The SIVA framework (Solution, Information, Value, Access) by Dev and Schultz (2005), was used to analyse the transcripts. Then, the results were adapted to the context of the Lower Rhine Region and agroforestry to provide marketing guidelines for producers of AFS-grown walnuts in the Lower Rhine Region. Results show that not only could new walnut producers successfully compete with imported walnuts in the Lower Rhine Region, but that agroforestry could also be a significant asset to their marketing strategy. KW - agroforestry Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - THES A1 - Koch, Alexander David T1 - Collective Action Opportunities for Upgrading the Value Chain of Small-scale Wooden Furniture Enterprise in Hawassa, Ethiopia N2 - Ethiopia is challenged with a widening domestic wood supply gap and concurrent rapid population growth. Along with these developments, the population’s growing purchasing power is driving the demand for wooden furniture. The majority of this demand is satisfied by small-scale enterprises. Adding to the domestic wood supply uncertainty, such enterprises are exposed to various challenges, such as infrastructural limitations, unfavourable market conditions, weak government support, or skill gaps, thereby hindering their development and often situating them in a subsistent and poor survival state. A development opportunity comes to light when considering that small-scale wooden furniture enterprises are linked to a critical natural resource base, exposed to growing markets, and mostly consist of individuals with an entrepreneurial vision. If guided effectively, this sector has the potential to drive an economic environment of innovative entrepreneurship, create skilful employment, and disseminate propulsive market signals towards wood suppliers. Collective action is a frequently discussed upgrading option for countering development barriers in the context of emerging economies and therefore, is explored as a potential upgrading mechanism. This study aims to develop a potential institutional model of collective action among small-scale enterprises in Hawassa, Ethiopia. The study follows the general procedure of a value chain analysis and frames the collective action model as a potential value chain upgrading strategy. As the target actor is poorly studied, an explorative and descriptive research approach is applied. In-depth interviews were conducted with 54 wooden furniture enterprises to gain insight into their value chain position and condition, cost structures, network ties, as well as challenges. Then, individual enterprises were asked to envision a desired collective action upgrading scenario. Several key informant interviews were also conducted with direct (internal) and indirect (external) value chain actors to forge a holistic value chain structure as well as to triangulate data. The situation for small-scale furniture enterprises was found to be highly unfavourable. The most substantial issue is the limited access to adequate factors of production, especially regarding the production site, physical capital and financial capital. With markets failing to provide these, enterprises were often observed to engage in social network ties with other furniture enterprise to enable access to resources. In addition, the government’s role in supporting these enterprises was found to be weak and poorly organized. Access to support services was observed to be obstructed by ethno-centrism as well as a high labour turnover amongst development agents. Promised trainings and access to factors of production were either rarely fulfilled or qualitatively low. To counter these issues, an institutional collective action in the form of a business association is recommended. On the basis of a literature review, empirical evidence on the status quo of the target enterprises, as well as their perception on upgrading scenarios, the study develops a model association, describing its form, purpose, institutional arrangements as well as the characteristics of participating actors and potential members. It is purposed to facilitate stable network ties and act as a collective voice for improving the condition of small-scale furniture producers. It especially serves to lower transaction costs with authoritative entities, supports the access to improved business development services, such as microfinances or trainings, and advocates for improved market conditions. In the long run, the association will help small-scale enterprises collectively develop into innovative and resource efficient businesses, thereby driving and improving local forest-based markets. Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:1383-opus4-5346 ER - TY - THES A1 - Vambe, Tatenda Enara T1 - A Benchmarking Research on Effective Sales Training Methods N2 - Large organisations annually invest large amounts of money into training and training delivery tools, however, the return from these investments is very low. This study tackles the question that arose after the realization that on a mean curve, the under performing and mediocre performing sales reps take up the majority, yet the excelling sales reps are just but a small population at the end. The question is then, why doe the sales reps that receive the same tools and same training perform extremely differently? To tackle this conundrum, four main models were included in the research. KW - Traininig KW - Sales training KW - Learning transference KW - Benchmarking Y1 - 2019 ER - TY - THES A1 - Leng, Jiale T1 - Analysis of the Blueberry Project for Chinese agricultural SMEs: A Case Study on RBGEA’s Blueberry Project N2 - First of all, my sincere thanks to my thesis supervisor, Prof. Dr. Dietrich Darr, for his endless patience and attentiveness. For over a year from the start of my internship, he took time out of his busy teaching schedule to review, revise my thesis, point out problems and give me sound advice. It was very encouraging and uplifting to complete my project with his help and to gain so much useful experience. I am also very grateful to my other supervisor, Mr. Md Sofiullah, for his constant guidance and help with the structure, theoretical content of my thesis. Inspired by our exchanges, I have successfully completed the whole work of my thesis. In addition to this, I would like to thank the management and staff of RBGEA for their help in writing this paper, Xuna Dai and Hongyan Zhang for providing various specific data and graphs, Hua Li and the entire management team for their support in substantive discussions and team work, and the six anonymous seasonal employees who provided information. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Hoang, Le Duy T1 - A look into the importance of social capital in agriculture extension of developing countries: A case study of the black carp project value chain extension in Hoa Binh, Vietnam N2 - Agriculture extension is an important tool for development, especially in many developing countries where a large part of their economy and population depends on the agriculture industries. As such, many studies have been conducted on how to best utilize an organization available resource to trigger developments with extension activities, but often overlook other available resources that are less tangible, such as social capital – the social relationship value of an individual or organization. This thesis presented how social capital such as linkage and connection from influential actors in society can be utilized by extension projects to trigger development in less well-off communities, via a case study of a value chain extension project in Hoa Binh, Vietnam. The study examines the economic results of the project to identify aspects of the chain that are able to deliver value, and expand upon it with interviews of involving actors to investigate the reasoning for their cooperation. The result strongly suggests that the participants of the project were able to enjoy economic benefit due to the project ability to utilize existing social capital of local businesses to facilitate the cooperation of the value chain, which are capable of generating higher profit than regular channels for the participant involved. Keywords: agriculture extension, aquaculture, social capital, value chain, Vietnam, Hoa Binh. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Pöytäniemi, Pinja T1 - Communication for development: The case of promoting organic farming in northern Ghana N2 - This case study uses a participatory approach to evaluate challenges in communication for development in an agricultural market-based project located in Northern Ghana, “Organic Markets for Development,” The project engages rural communities around Ghana's largest National Park Mole. The four research questions were 1) How do the communication methods used in the OM4D project influence the adoption process of organic farming among small- scale farmers? 2) What is the communication structure and flow of information within the OM4D project social network? 3) What are the challenges in communication that are hindering the adoption process? and 4) Which recommendations can be made to tackle the challenges faced, improve communication, and build organizational communication capacity based on the learnings of this research? The findings indicate that such interventions have high levels of conflict that are essential to moderate by using effective communication methods. The formal third-party organic certification system forces the OM4D project to use the top-down approach. Also, attitudes originating from a top-down approach were observed, where low adoption is accounted for on farmer characteristics rather than limiting socio-economic factors. Overall, the project succeeded in disseminating information and awareness-raising, but the communication methods were insufficient to facilitate the adoption process and establish a shared understanding and practical problem-solving. The recommendation is to include participatory methods in the project to promote effective community capacity building and engagement. KW - Communication for development Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Mizane, Amal T1 - Implementation of organic agriculture and sustainability thinking in higher agricultural education in Uganda N2 - Several significant reforms have been implemented by the Ugandan government in the last few years aimed at converting conventional agriculture into organic agriculture. To analyze the impact of organic agriculture policies on the education system in Uganda, in this study, it has been assessed the number of courses, training institutions, and University programs available during the past years. The researcher also examined from the students' perspective the limitations and possible improvements of the organic agriculture courses to identify possible gaps and develop better strategies. Furthermore, the researcher interviewed students from Uganda Martyrs University, a leading African University in Agro-ecological solutions, with top-rated courses in Organic Agriculture and Agroecology. The research revealed there are several courses available in Uganda based on the policies found. Most programs are dealing with Agroecology and Organic agriculture. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Camacho, Monica T1 - Urban Agriculture: an alternative to alleviate poverty and food insecurity in Panama N2 - There is an evident global rapid urbanization which has also impacted Panama. People immigrate from rural areas to the cities because they are seeking for better economic opportunities and stability. Agriculture in the countryside, is in Panama a sector with low productivity and incentives. However, with an increasing urban immigration, issues such as food insecurity, in already vulnerable cities emerge. The interest of the study is to analyze the current scenario of Urban Agriculture in Panama and to link the existing gap with studies from different countries in the region that were selected. To measure the impact of Urban & Peri-Urban and Family agriculture, studies which used the ‘Food Insecurity experienced-based scales’ as an assessment indicator, were included. Four out of five studies showed a positive correlation between households who produced their own food, and their Food Security levels. It is concluded that Urban Agriculture & Peri-Urban and Family agriculture may not be systems that can substitute the traditional system on supplying enough food to feed everyone but with support from the estate and enough public policies it has the capability of supplying a good portion that can help alleviate food security and poverty levels. KW - Food security KW - Agriculture Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Lemmen, Samuel T1 - Operational Effectiveness of Means Reducing Food Losses and Waste in Food Retail N2 - Around the globe, high quantities of produced food do not meet their initial purpose of nourishing humans. Food losses and waste occur throughout food supply chains for various reasons, resulting in unsustainable economic, social and environmental behaviour. Several actors in the supply chain have responsibility to transfer food products from farm to fork, whereas each of them holds potential to reduce food losses and waste. Compared to other actors in the chain, retailers are in the exceptional position of selling items to consumers, commonly offering a huge variety of products. Retailers have power in the chain and are therefore seen as a promising stage where “means” tackling food losses and waste can be implemented. Besides the quantities that can be mitigated by the implementation of means, the adoption of these must be realistic in practice, too (i.e. practical feasibility). Together, the quantities mitigated and the practical feasibility are the determinants of the “operational effectiveness”. Hence, the research objective is to analyse the operational effectiveness of means that can be applied by food retailers to reduce food losses and waste. The objective has been addressed by analysing ten individual means through a literature review, namely (1) improved forecasting, (2) lower order quantities, (3) avoiding rejections, (4) technologies enabling improved shelf life, (5) selling loose products, (6) price-reducing strategies, (7) reducing promotions, (8) alternative distribution pathways, (9) offering a reduced product range and (10) consumer education. Six means showed to “highly” mitigate food losses and waste, whereby five of these exhibit either a “low” or “inconclusive” practical feasibility. Alternative distribution pathways as well as price-reducingstrategies are frequently applied means by retailers and hold a “moderate” practical feasibility. Yet, the evaluation of means related to the use of packaging was mainly inconclusive, which can to some extent be explained by the lacking evidence and disagreements in previous research. Means like reducing promotions or offering a reduced product range appear to reduce food losses and waste, but stand in conflict with the marketing strategy of retailers and offer only a low practical feasibility. The same holds true for avoiding rejections. In that case, although retail standards are higher than required, these could also mitigate a transfer of waste. One of the key findings is that consumer education occurred to hold great future potential, because it showed to indirectly influence other means considered in this thesis, i.e. consumer understanding and acceptance are crucial for various means. Research concentrating on means tackling food losses and waste is limited, especially with focus on studies examining the (potential) impacts on retailing and suggests considerable research backlog. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Vahrenhorst, Nele Sarah T1 - How to initiate transformative research on permaculture in the Lower Rhine valley? A framework developed based on the analysis of previous experiences N2 - As climate change continues to have negative effects on agriculture, the European Commission calls for sustainable farming approaches as solutions to challenges associated with climate change and therefore propose living labs as a transformative, transdisciplinary and participatory research mode in order to enforce the resilience of farming systems. Permaculture is considered as an approach for the living lab at the Lower Rhine as it aims at integrating sustainable management practices and ethical principles to provide the framework for a holistic approach that could provide an alternative to current management practices and their negative effects on the region. The thesis at hand aims at establishing a living lab framework that allows involvement of regional stakeholders from a range of sectors in a regional network that is part of a trinity of projects that additionally include an on-site test area and a digital knowledge platform. By performing literature research and interviews with regional primary producers and experts of the field, the thesis proceeds to place the permaculture living lab in the currently available context of living lab categorizations and provides a detailed framework with step-by-step instructions to follow as well as a selection of aspects to keep in mind in order to initiate transformative research on permaculture in the form of a living lab in the Lower Rhine region. Apart from the needs of regional primary producers, existing networks and organizations relevant for the living lab are identified, as well as successfully implemented living labs in Zurich, Lisbon, Bern and New York whose objectives align at least partially with those of the future permaculture living lab that can provide experience and suggestions for the planning process. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - THES A1 - Pham Tran, Duc Anh T1 - A Meta-Analysis of Fish and Crop Yields of Coupled and Decoupled Aquaponics N2 - Aquaponics is an alternative farming method that has recently gained popularity and research attention due to its potential to solve resource-related issues such as water and land scarcity. Currently, no study comparing plant and fish yields cultivated in coupled aquaponics (cAP) and decoupled aquaponics (dAP) could be identified. Meta-analyses were conducted to synthesize data extracted from studies reporting fish and plant performance in cAP and dAP. Three databases were used to identify relevant research papers published in English between 2016 and 2021. The effect size of each study was calculated using the standardized mean difference. The summary effect size and heterogeneity (I2) were computed using a mixed-effects model. However, a meta-regression or a sub-group analysis was not conducted to analyze and describe heterogeneity in greater detail. The results of the meta-analyses indicate that dAP is superior to cAP mainly in fish yields, whereas no significant difference in crop yields between cAP and dAP was observed. However, due to the presence of moderate heterogeneity in some meta-analyses, conclusions derived from the summary effect sizes of such meta-analyses should be carefully interpreted. Therefore, the conclusions should only provide an overall picture of how yields in cAP compare to yields in dAP. Y1 - 2023 ER -