Cocoa Production in Ghana A Mechanism for Biodiversity...

Introduction When it comes to intensive farming systems, many rural farmers face a trade-off between agricultural production and biodiversity . In order to protect the biodiversity, farmers must sacrifice agricultural production. Hence, the challenge is to continuously expand food production while bearing no negative effects on biodiversity. These negative effects widely include deforestation, disrupting ecosystem integrity and species viability. In light of these issues, better farming technologies and natural resource management practices along with improved agricultural policies are required. This brings up the question of how to protect wild species and conserve habitat while increasing agricultural production and farmer’s incomes?†¦show more content†¦Cocoa agroforests in particular, can create forest-like habitats, harboring tropical biodiversity in degrading lands . It is claimed that to date, biological diversity in cocoa production has been poorly studied, especially in t he context of ecoagriculture, which is referred to as â€Å"land-use systems managed for both agricultural production and wild biodiversity conservation† . Ecoagriculture can be considered the future of landscape management as it helps to preserve species and increase the productivity of the land while enabling the rural poor. The cocoa sector in Ghana provides livelihoods for over 700,000 farmers in the country . Since 1990s, world cocoa prices have steadily increased (with the exception of 1998 – 2000 and 2003 – 2006) . Hence, the steady increase in prices combined with farmers being paid a higher share of the price, has offered farmers increasing real producer prices. Even so, the ongoing environmental impact of existing farming practices may affect rural livelihoods. Trees have been cut down in large numbers to accommodate the open-field hybrid variety of coca, which grows in full sun conditions . According to Kolavalli and Vigneri (2010), â€Å"the damage to cocoa trees from capsid attacks tends to be higher for cocoa trees growing in full sun than for those in shaded systems† . Hence, the best possible environmental alternative to the

Population, Industry, and Generals †How the Confederacy...

The Civil War was an unusual war- and the odds were very bleak for the Confederacy at the start, yet they won most of the conflicts early on. The reason the confederates were not immediately beaten is largely due to the impressive tactical genius that they brought to the battlefield which allowed them to outmaneuver and slow Union forces until they finally ran out of money, soldiers, and supplies. The Civil War had almost the same number of casualties as all other wars in US history combined (McPherson and Bruce vi-vii). The Confederacy faced impossible odds, with almost all of the Union’s industry having been in the North even prior to the secession. The Confederate forces were about equal in size to those of the Union at the start,†¦show more content†¦The Confederacy had hardly any naval strength, which was critical. If the Confederates had had a large navy, they might have been able to break the Union blockade. Their clients for cotton did not come to their aid either; despite some talk of intervention in the war, no action was taken by Britain or France (McPherson 384). The â€Å"allies† of the Confederacy simply did not want the trials, costs, and casualties of a war on their hands because of another country’s civil war. Such an action could potentially spark another war, something that Britain and France simply figured that the Confederacy was not worth. At the time, medicine in both countries (truthfully worldwide) was still very primitive. There were surgeons who were part of the military, and medics were very sought after. There was little they could do to help, however. According to the Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, â€Å"the great majority of wounds and of sickness should be treated by the regimental surgeon,† (Sherman 393). The treatment given back then to a wound from a gunshot wound was amputation without anesthesia- as it would not be invented yet for about a century- and after surgery, doctors did not wash their hands or instruments, exponentially increasing the likelihood of infection of a wound and lowering the likelihood of survival. The Union had an advantage in this, though not due to superior doctors or medicine. The Union had roughly four and a half times as many citizens as theShow MoreRelatedImpact of Science on Society38421 Words   |  154 Pagesour housing, clothes, and food, our methods o f transportation, and, indeed, even the length and quality of life itself, science has generated changes in the moral values and basic philosophies of mankind. Beginning with the plow, science has changed how we live and what we believe. By making life easier, science has given man the chance to pursue societal concerns such as ethics, aesthetics, education, and justice; to create cultures; and to improve human conditions. But it has also placed us in theRead MoreImpact of Science on Society38427 Words   |  154 Pagesour housing, clothes, and food, our methods of transportation, and, indeed, even the length and quality of life itself, science has generated changes in the moral values and basic philosophies of mankind. Beginning with the plow, science has changed how we live and what we believe. By making life easier, science has given man the chance to pursue societal concerns such as ethics, aesthetics, education, and justice; to create cultures; and to improve human conditions. But it has also placed us in theRead MoreContemporary Issues in Management Accounting211377 Words   |  846 Pagesauthority to the office of President of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. One senses, however, that the British academic accounting community may be less able to fulfil these roles in the coming years. In part this reflects a more general decline in the academic world as falling relative salaries and status have reduced the intake of talented academic entrepreneurs. But I also think it reflects the cumulative impact of regulatory and careerist pressures in the academic world itself

Marketing Strategy and Plan The Bonfire Cafe

Question: Discuss about theMarketing Strategy and Planfor the Bonfire Cafe. Answer: Identification of the problems The Bonfire caf in Australia is responsible for serving Indian and Pakistani food to its customers. The restaurant serves variety of food that is good in taste. The service of the restaurant is also good as the staff is very polite. The location is also good and is a major attraction to the customers specially the ones that lover Indian food. However, few problems have been identified that the restaurant faces. The problems faced by Bonfire caf in Australia are as follows: The caf only focuses on expansion of the restaurant and does not pay attention in improving the quality of the food that it serves to its customers. The second problem identified is that the restaurant has limited menu and only concentrates on serving Indian and Pakistani food. The restaurant should concentrate on expanding the menu and the variety of food that it serves. The restaurant has very little knowledge of their customers due t which they are unable to target the right customers. This makes them loose their valuable customers, which is an important part of the organization. The fourth problem identified is that there are many restaurants like the Bonfire caf due to which the competition increases. The customers are divided and the profit of the firm falls. It is easy to enter the market and easy to copy (Beijbom et al. 2015). The restaurant only focuses on the affordable meals and lacks in all types of meals. The customer satisfaction is falling due to the quality of the food that it serves to its customers. With the new restaurants coming up the competition is rising that is raising the problems for the organization. It is making difficult for the organization to grow and expand. People now days are becoming more health conscious due to which they avoid consuming junk foods, as it is bad for health. This is a major problem faced by the restaurant (Kotler et al. 2015). Solution to the Problems The problems identified above have solutions as well. The solutions are: The restaurant should not just concentrate on expansion but also quality of food. Improving quality of food will automatically attract customers and increase the profit the level. The restaurant should also expand the variety of food that it serves. Instead of just serving Indian and Pakistani food, it should introduce other foods like Italian or American food. This will help the restaurant increase its customer base. To fight over its competitors analyzing the competitors strategies is essential. An innovation should be introduced in order to achieve competitive advantage. It can be in form of discounts or a change in the ambience. The restaurant can keep theme parties that will be a major attraction for the customers. It is also essential for the restaurant to identify its customers and stay in constant touch with them. This can be done through social media and internet.Since people are becoming health conscious, the restaurant should be involved in delivering organic food to its customers. Healthy food made with healthy herbs and spices should be served to health conscious people (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick 2012). Hence, the senior executives of the organization can solve the problems through proper planning and strategies. Formulation of strategies depends in proper market survey and analysis. Target Market and Market Segmentation Target market is a group of consumers whom the organization targets to sell its products and services. Forming target market is the first step towards the successful marketing strategy. A target market is formed on various factors and characteristics that they share and is similar. This includes age, sex, gender, demography, social status, culture, class, belief, attitude and lifestyle. Segmentation of the customers based on these given factors is known as market segmentation (Aghdaie and Alimardani 2015). Market segmentation includes: Geographical segmentation: the customers segmented based on location, region, climate and address. In this case, the Bonfire caf targets customers of Australia that is Sydney and Melbourne and nearby areas. Demographic segmentation: the customers are segmented based on gender, age, demography, wage and career. In this case, the Bonfire caf targets customers of all demography and age. The restaurant concentrates on Indian and Pakistani consumers who love the Indian food. It also focuses on tourists of India and other countries who search for Indian food (Wedel and Kamakura 2012). Psychographic segmentation: the customers are segmented based on attitudes, values and lifestyles. The restaurant concentrates on customers that are loyal and have good attitude. It concentrates on customers that have high social status and income. Hence, the major concentration of the Bonfire caf is Pakistani and Indian consumers that have craving for Indian food. The customers are not segmented based on age as it includes children, young men, women, and adults as well. The customers of Bonfire caf are mainly from Australia and mainly Indians that reside in Australia. It also includes the Indian tourists that come to visit Australia (Mobin and Dehghanimohammadabadi 2014). Marketing Objectives Marketing objectives are the goals and aims that the caf wants to achieve. The objective of the restaurant is to expand its business to other countries as well. It also aims at increasing the customer base and attracts major tourists. The organization aims at reducing the delivery time and improving its services. The restaurant is only involved in serving the food on the table to the customers and now it aims at introducing take away delivery. It also aims at serving customers by home delivery of food within five kilometer of radius that too free delivery on order bill of above Australian Dollar fifty. This is done to expand the business and achieve competitive advantage over its competitors. The caf aims at serving the food within the given deadline. The marketing objectives can be measured using SMART framework. The marketing objectives of the Bonfire caf is to increase the number of customers visiting the restaurant by twenty five percent and opening two new stores in Melbourne an d Sydney. It also aims at expanding its stores in India as well (Brown 2012). SMART Objective: It is one of the frameworks that are used to measure the marketing objectives of the organization. The marketing objectives so formed should be: Specific: the organization should target in a specific area. In this case Bonfire caf targets at expanding the business to other places and expanding the customer base and hence is specific in its objectives. Measurable: the marketing objectives so formed should be measurable. In this case the Bonfire caf has set marketing objectives in numbers that is it wants to expand its customer base by twenty five percent. Assignable: the objectives formed should be assigned to respective heads. Here in this case the marketing objectives are assigned to the employees and the supervisors of the restaurant. It is also assigned to the marketers (Lee et al. 2015). Realistic: the marketing objectives formed should be attainable and realistic so that the organization is able to achieve them given the amount of resources. Time related: a specific time should be set to achieve the objectives and should not be too long. In this case, the cafe plans to achieve its target within two years of span. References Aghdaie, M.H. and Alimardani, M., 2015. Target market selection based on market segment evaluation: a multiple attribute decision making approach.International Journal of Operational Research,24(3), pp.262-278. Beijbom, O., Joshi, N., Morris, D., Saponas, S. and Khullar, S., 2015, January. Menu-match: restaurant-specific food logging from images. In2015 IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision(pp. 844-851). IEEE. Brown, D., 2012. Personal Objective for 2013? Not to Have SMART Objectives.Compensation Benefits Review,44(6), pp.305-307. Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012.Principles and practice of marketing(No. 7th). McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L. and Armstrong, G., 2015.Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU. Lee, J.Y., Kozlenkova, I.V. and Palmatier, R.W., 2015. Structural marketing: using organizational structure to achieve marketing objectives.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,43(1), pp.73-99. Mobin, M. and Dehghanimohammadabadi, M., 2014. Food product target market prioritization using MCDM approaches. InProceedings of the 2014 Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference. Wedel, M. and Kamakura, W.A., 2012.Market segmentation: Conceptual and methodological foundations(Vol. 8). Springer Science Business Media