Smallholder farmers in Uganda suffer from declining productivity. With a rapidly increasing population, marginal land is taken into production and the current land management leads to loss in soil fertility and escalation in soil erosion. There are studies indicating that the use of agroforestry increases soil organic carbon (SOC) compared to systems without trees. Soils which are high in carbon have many advantages, for example better water holding capacity, which can reduce stress on crops during drought. The aim of this study was to determine the effect agroforestry has on SOC concentration in Small-holder farming systems in Uganda. The intended system to study was farms practicing agroforestry methods or not in intercropped plantain (cooking banana) fields.

Hunger is a problem in some parts of the world (www, FAO 1, 2012). The lack of food is often a result of insufficient knowledge in soil fertility management (Röing de Nowina, 2012). Ongoing hunger and malnourishment are quite prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and are often combined with poverty (www, FAO 1, 2012). Farming is the most common occupation in this area and the farms are often small-scale farms with subsistence crops and a few cattle. The farmers who operate these small-scale farms are economically a weak group.

High demands are set on all equipment used in emergency service work, where small margins can be the distinguishing factor between life and death during a rescue operation. It is important that tools such as ladders quickly and easily can be dismounted from a vehicle and still satisfy the regulatory requirements for securing loads during transport. The existing solution for getting ladders down from the roof of a fire engine requires a large manual effort from the user in an ergonomically unsound posture.In this degree project a new ladder holder is developed with focus on the user to solve the ergonomic problems and at the same time create a more compact design that can be adapted to several different types of ladders. After an initial pre-study with user-interviews and measurement of forces and distances a set of requirements was formulated that came to govern the project's direction. Creative methods were used to generate concepts that improved the function and through design solutions, calculations and testing in CAD a base for manufacturing of a new product was created.The result is a completely new type of ladder holder that minimizes the user's manual effort and simplifies the securing of ladders in the holder.

The demand for food, feed, fibre and fuel has increased in Uganda over the past 50 years due to population growth. Recurring extreme climate events such as drought and flooding, in combination with large-scale land degradation, have led to declining crop yields. Lack of equipment, money and socio-economic issues has contributed to low yields. However, the soils in Uganda have the potential to produce much higher yields than they do today. This study, which was carried out in April-June 2013 in Kkingo District, south-east Uganda, examined the effects of agroforestry on yield of cooking bananas in Small-holder farming systems. Six farms practising agroforestry and six farms with no agroforestry, which were chosen in cooperation with the NGO Vi Agroforestry, were compared.

This Master Thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Ursus Medical AB (URSUS) which markets, assembles and sells the Rotex Screw Needle Biopsy Instrument ®. The instrument is delivered with an instrument holder. Customers had expressed dissatisfaction over that they needed to use two hands during a biopsy procedure, which resulted in a project to develop a new instrument holder.The project aim was to create concepts for how the new instrument holder should be designed, with focus on the mechanics. The new instrument holder would build on the existing basic principle that the screw needle and the cannula were screwed into the tissue. The thesis work would result in a technical solution and a functional prototype of the chosen concept.To achieve this, a generic product development processes were used and began with a comprehensive literature review.

The margin in crop production is more and more less and it forces the producer to check out how to reduce the cost of establishment of new crop. One way to reduce the cost in establishment is to begin with plough less farming. It saves money and time compares to conventional soil preparation with plough and harrow. Not all soil types are god for plough less farming and should be continued with ploughing (mainly light soil), but other soil types working very well with plough free farming. If you want to success with plough less farming you have to think in new lanes. One of the things you have to think about is to not grow too much cereal after cereal. Low stubble is important when you harvest the crop and also to spread and chop the straw well. I have in this work interviewed some farmers and farm advisers in Östergötland to see which thoughts they have about plough less farming.

Arcoma is a company that develops and manufactures X-ray equipment for hospitals. One of the most crucial components is the digital detector. Due to the high cost it is made removable so it could be transferred and used in other X-ray apparatus. The detector is placed in a so called detector holder. The current detector has a rectangular shape which sometimes requires a 90 degree rotation to match the shape of the patient.

The possession over bills and coins has, on the whole, been replaced with a credit balance on an account. Almost all payments today are processed by transmitting digital data and not by using cash. The credit balance on an account is a demand that the holder ofthe account have towards his bank. Law regarding three part relationships: By using Göranson?s theory you can say that the credit balance on an account may be object of possession.

Nowadays, cooperation is necessary and this study tries to illuminate the possibilities and problems about cooperation in fiction between 7 small/midsize farms in Skåne. Conventional Farming is done with grain and sugarbeets as specialization. Calculation of machine costs have been done and compared in the study, both for the farms in thorough and the fictitious operation companies. Business ratios as depreciation/ha, interest/ha and maintenance/ha have been calculated. In this essay we present a proposal about how a practical implementation can be done. In the proposal there is an example how the distribution of work can be done.

This report is a bachelor thesis work within the field of Product Development and is also an assignment for Thule Sweden. The work has been performed by Niclas Tjäderborn and Christian Holm, students at the Mechanical Engineering Program with major in Product Development and Industrial Design at Jönköping School of Engineering during spring the semester of 2009.The thesis work concerned the development of a new wheel holder for bike carrier for Thule Sweden. The background to the project was that the initiator wanted a more user friendly wheel holder with better design than those available on the market. The wheel holder is able to be implemented on one or several of Thule?s current wheel holders.

Organic agriculture is financially promoted in Sweden by special environmental support and as consumers we are all encouraged to buy organic food. At the same time scholars at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences claim that organic farming does not provide any environmental benefits. The main criticism is that organic farming has lower yields than conventional, which means that more land is needed to produce the same amount of food as in conventional farming, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity. As for climate change, the critics claim that the significantly higher productivity in conventional crop production compared to organic, releases surplus land, which could be used for bio-fuel production and thereby replace the fossil fuels. The critics also claim that organic farming causes higher nutrient leaching than conventional.

Organic agriculture is financially promoted in Sweden by special environmental support and as consumers we are all encouraged to buy organic food. At the same time scholars at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences claim that organic farming does not provide any environmental benefits. The main criticism is that organic farming has lower yields than conventional, which means that more land is needed to produce the same amount of food as in conventional farming, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity. As for climate change, the critics claim that the significantly higher productivity in conventional crop production compared to organic, releases surplus land, which could be used for bio-fuel production and thereby replace the fossil fuels. The critics also claim that organic farming causes higher nutrient leaching than conventional.

The aim of this essay is to give the reader an idea of how the European agricultural policies have developed, in regard of sustainable development, since Sweden became a member in the union 1995. The main aspect that?s been investigated is the issues regarding sustainable development and how the issues regarding the ecological farming methods have been dealt with. My research questions are:- How has the European environment- and agricultural politics changed since Swedenjoined the union in 1995?- What consequences have the changes had for ecological farming?The answers to the stated questions are that there have been several treaties in the field of environmental development of the agricultural policy, starting with the Maastricht treaty and ends up with the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming.

During the last 100-200 years people have change their way of living and the condition and need for survival is no longer depending on the agricultural work. The forestry has replaced the farming and a lot of the natural pastural have been lost. Wessmantorp in the north part of Skåne is an old place for forestry and farming where people have been living for several hundred years. Studies of selected parts of the everyday landscape, that earlier have been settlement with small crofter?s holding, show that the changes in the landscape mostly depends on the human factor and that a lot of the cultivable soil have been replaced with spruce. Some of the areas, which the earlier dwellings were placed, still contain some remains of old house foundations and stone fences and can regard as being of an historical value. The studies provide the reader with a short background, the place as it is today and the changes of the land use in Wessmantorp.

The problem with passive farmers has arised as an effect of the European Union´s common agricultural policy (CAP) and the decouplement from production-based payments. Payments to passive farmers contradict the purpose of the single payment scheme and constitute a great cost for the EU. The new contractual period after 2013 has given rise to discussions on the direction of the CAP with a purpose of increasing the efficiency of the single payment scheme, and reducing passive farming. The aim of the study is to increase the knowledge about a few factors? influence on passive farmers? attitudes towards land use and the CAP.