The Urabá region, known for its banana production, faces significant challenges due to seasonal droughts that affect crop productivity. The implementation of innovative technologies, such as efficient irrigation systems, is presented as a potential solution to improve the sustainability and profitability of plantations. This study validates the implementation of an irrigation system in a banana (Musa spp.) plantation located in the region of Urabá, in order to meet the water needs of the crop during periods of drought. A case study was carried out in a banana plantation in the region of Urabá, considering the maximum and minimum monthly losses due to drought, and a random sample was used to measure the weight before and after the implementation of the irrigation system, in order to carry out an economic analysis. The study shows that the implementation of a sprinkler irrigation system increases the average weight of the harvested bunches by 20%, which is reflected in an annual increase of 30.3% of exported boxes, obtaining satisfactory results in terms of internal rate of return, cost-benefit ratio and return on investment. The implementation of irrigation systems makes it possible to increase competitiveness in international markets, especially in regions such as Urabá, where the use of these technologies is still incipient.

The article aims to evaluate the participation of below-poverty-line local community in tourism-related business activity in Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. Further, this article addressed for those who work in the tourism sector. The study employs a mix of methods, including survey data from 500 respondents with a random sampling approach, using Analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical tools for analysis, other methods were interviews and observations at six tourism sites in Garhwal and four sites in Kumaun. Our findings showed that there has declined in community participation in tourism development, due to the lack of economic benefits obtained in the tourism sector, many believe that the tourism sector does not provide much income growth for them and does not make a significant contribution to the development of their region. Moreover, lack of understanding is considered the basis for community’s inability to play an active role, and lack of stakeholders’ involvement in encouraging them to improve their economy and culture through the tourism sector. Ultimately, this research also underlines the existence of some efforts by tourism travel to encourage public trust, which can help reduce poverty and increase community trust in tourism development in their region.

Global economic competition is leading companies to improve their competitiveness by increasing production and eliminating the main obstacles to the process of making products available. This approach concerns both SMEs and SMIs as well as multinationals. Thus, the Compagnie Minière de l’Ogooué (COMILOG), a subsidiary of the French group ERAMET, which until recently had a monopoly on manganese mining in Gabon, must now face competition from Asian operators. To export its ore, COMILOG must first transport it by rail for nearly 650 km, from the Moanda site (south-east of the country) to the port of Owendo. However, port operations, which until then took place exclusively during the day, limited the company’s export capacities and the profits made, while increasing the stopover time of ships and their operating costs. To remedy this, the French company introduced nighttime docking and departures. This work addresses the challenges of the performance of port operations at the Owendo ore terminal and the security and natural risks of night manoeuvres. The general objective of the study is to assess the impact of these night services on ship traffic, on the one hand, and to identify the related socio-economic and security issues, on the other hand. Data collection was carried out using documentary research in libraries and research centres, consultation of websites, semi-directed interviews, questionnaire surveys and participatory observation. The sample of 50 people surveyed took into account management staff, supervisors and line managers, integrating the diversity of actors involved in the processing of ships calling at the port of Owendo. Finally, the surveys attest to a clear reduction in the time spent by ships at the Owendo Ore Port and an increase in their number calling. They also confirm the improvement in tonnages embarked and the improvement in turnover achieved by COMILOG. This study led to the conclusion that the introduction of night manoeuvres at the port of Owendo allowed COMILOG to increase its exports and the number of ore carriers received in stopover and then improve its turnover.

Accurate prediction of US Treasury bond yields is crucial for investment strategies and economic policymaking. This paper explores the application of advanced machine learning techniques, specifically Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models, in forecasting these yields. By integrating key economic indicators and policy changes, our approach seeks to enhance the precision of yield predictions. Our study demonstrates the superiority of LSTM models over traditional RNNs in capturing the temporal dependencies and complexities inherent in financial data. The inclusion of macroeconomic and policy variables significantly improves the models’ predictive accuracy. This research underscores a pioneering movement for the legacy banking industry to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in financial market prediction. In addition to considering the conventional economic indicator that drives the fluctuation of the bond market, this paper also optimizes the LSTM to handle situations when rate hike expectations have already been priced-in by market sentiment.

This study aims to evaluate the relationship between financial resilience, exchange rate, inflation, and economic growth from 1996 to 2022 using secondary data from the World Bank. The analysis method uses vector autoregressive to understand the causality dynamics between these variables. The results show that past economic growth positively impacts current economic conditions, but an increase in the exchange rate can hinder economic growth. The exchange rate also tends to be influenced by previous values, but high economic growth does not always increase the exchange rate. Previous conditions significantly affect financial resilience and can be strengthened by a strong currency. Meanwhile, inflation has an inverse relationship with economic growth, where past inflation seems to suppress current inflation, which price stabilization policies can cause. From an institutional economics perspective, this study provides an understanding of the interaction between various economic factors in the structural framework and policies that regulate economic activities. The impulse response function (IRF) shows that economic growth can react strongly to sudden changes, although this reaction may not last long. The exchange rate fluctuates with economic changes, reflecting market optimism and uncertainty. Financial resilience may be strong initially but may weaken over time, indicating the need for policies to strengthen the financial system to ensure economic stability. Furthermore, the role of social capital in economic resilience is highlighted as it can amplify the positive effects of a robust institutional framework by fostering trust and collaboration among economic actors. Inflation reacts differently to economic changes, challenging policymakers to balance growth and price stability. Overall, the IRF provides insights into how economic variables interact with each other and react to sudden changes, albeit with some uncertainty in the estimates. The forecast error decomposition variance (FEVD) analysis in this study reveals that internal factors initially influence economic growth, but over time, external factors such as the exchange rate, financial resilience, and inflation come into play. The exchange rate, which was initially volatile due to internal factors, becomes increasingly influenced by economic growth, indicating a close relationship between the economy and the foreign exchange market. From an institutional economics perspective, financial resilience, which was initially stable due to internal factors, becomes increasingly dependent on global economic conditions, suggesting the importance of a solid institutional framework for maintaining economic stability. In addition, inflation, which was initially explained by economic growth and exchange rates, has gradually become more influenced by financial resilience, indicating the importance of effective monetary policy in controlling inflation. This study highlights the importance of understanding how economic variables influence each other for effective economic governance. Integrating institutional economics and social capital perspectives provides a comprehensive framework for enhancing financial resilience and promoting sustainable economic development in Indonesia.

This study examines the economic feasibility of the environment-friendly farmland use policy to improve water quality. Conventional highland farming, polluting the Han River basin in South Korea, can be converted into environment-friendly farming through land acquisition or application of pesticide-free or organic farming practices. We estimate the welfare measures of improvement in water quality and the costs of policy implementation for economic analysis. To estimate the economic benefit of improvement in water quality experienced by the residents residing in mid-and-downstream areas of the Han River, the choice experiment was employed with a pivot-style experimental design approach. In the empirical analysis, we converted the household perception for water quality grades into scientific water quality measures using Water Quality Standard to estimate the value of changes in water quality. To analyze the costs required to convert conventional highland farmlands into environment-friendly farmlands, we estimated the relevant cost of land acquisition and the subsidy necessary for farm income loss for organic agricultural practice. We find that the agri-environmental policy is economically viable, which suggests that converting conventional highland farming into environment-friendly farming would make the improvement in water quality visible.