AMA "Agricultural Mechanization in Asia, Africa, and Latin America" *written in English

photo1 An international English magazine publishing the papers written about the ways to develop the agriculture in developing countries.

Published in A4 size. About 100 pages every issue.Subscription Fee: 8,000 YEN/Annual(4 issues/sea mail),including postage
(Published from Farm Machinery Industrial Research Corp.)


HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PAPER TO AMA

Please follow the directions noted below when submitting your paper to AMA. The papers not following these instructions may be rejected without notice.

INSTRUCTIONS TO AMA CONTRIBUTORS

CRITERIA FOR ARTICLE SELECTION
PRIORITY IN THE SELECTION OF ARTICLE FOR PUBLICATION IS GIVEN TO THOSE THAT

  1. are written in the English language;
  2. are relevant: to the promotion of agricultural mechanization, particularly for the developing countries;
  3. have not been previously published elsewhere, or, if previously published are supported by a copyright permission;
  4. deal with practical and adoptable innovations by, small farmers with a minimum of complicated formulas, theories and schematic diagrams;
  5. have a 50 to 100-word abstract, preferably preceding the main body of the article;
  6. are printed, double-spaced, under 3,000 words (approximately equivalent to 6 pages of AMA-size paper) ; and those that
  7. art: supported by authentic sources, reference or bibliography.
  8. written on CD-R.

REJECTED/ACCEPTED ARTICLES

  1. As a rule, articles that are not chosen for AMA publication are not returned unless the writer(s) asks for their return and are covered with adequate postage stamps. At the earliest time possible, the writer(s) is advised whether the article is rejected or accepted.
  2. When an article is accepted but requires revision/modification, the details will be indicated in the return reply from the AMA Chief Editor in which case such revision/modification must be completed and returned to AMA within three months from the date of receipt from the Editorial Staff.
  3. The AMA does not pay for articles published.
  4. Complimentary copies: Following the publishing, three successive issue are sent to the author(s).

PROCEDURE

  1. Articles for publication (original and one-copy) must be sent to AMA through the Co-operating Editor in the country where the article originates. (Please refer to the names and addresses of Co-operating Editors in any issue of the AMA). However, in the absence of any Co-operating Editor, the article needs to be sent to Co-operating Editor in the writer’s neighboring country.
  2. Contributors of articles for the AMA for the first time are required to attach a passport size ID photograph (black and white print preferred) to the article. The same applies to those who have contributed articles three years earlier. In either case, ID photographs taken within the last 6 months are preferred.
  3. The article must bear the writer(s) name, title/designation, office/organization, nationality and complete mailing address.

FORMAT/STYLE GUIDANCE

  1. Article must be sent on CD-R with MS DOS format (e.g. Word Perfect, Word for DOS, Word for Windows... Absolutely necessary TEXT FORMAT) along with two printed copy (A4).
  2. The data for graphs and photographs must be saved into piecemeal dates and enclosed with the article.
  3. Whether the article is a technical or popular contribution, lecture, research result, thesis or special report, the format must contain the following features:
    1. brief and appropriate title;
    2. the writer(s) name, designation/title, office/organization; and mailing address;
    3. an abstract following ii) above;
    4. body proper (text/discussion);
    5. conclusion/recommendation; and a
    6. bibliography
  4. The printed copy must be numbered (Arabic numeral) successively at the top center whereas the disc copy pages should not be number. Tables, graphs and diagrams must likewise be numbered. Table numbers must precede table titles, e.g., "Table 1. Rate of Seeding per Hectare". Such table number and title must be typed at the top center of the table. On the other hand, graphs, diagrams, maps and photographs are considered figures in which case the captions must be indicated below the figure and preceded by number, e.g., "Figure 1. View of the Farm Buildings".
  5. The data for the graph must also be included. (e.g. EXCEL for Windows)
  6. Tables and figures must be preceded by texts or discussions. Inclusion of such tables and figures not otherwise referred to in the text/discussion must be avoided.
  7. Tables must be typed clearly without vertical lines or partitions. Horizontal lines must be drawn only to contain the sub-title heads of columns and at the bottom of the table.
  8. Express measurements in the metric system and crop yields in metric tons per hectare (t/ha) and smaller units in kilogram or gram (kg/plot or g/row).
  9. Indicate by footnotes or legends any abbreviations or symbols used in tables or figures.
  10. Convert national currencies in US dollars and use the later consistently.
  11. Round off numbers, if possible, to one or two decimal units, e.g., 45.5 kg/ha instead of 45.4762 kg/ha.
  12. When numbers must start a sentence, such numbers must be written in words, e.g., Forty-five workers..., or Five tractors..."instead of 45 workers..., or, 5 tractors.
There are more than 80 co-editors in countries all over the world.

Check the backward page of AMA, and submit your paper to the co-editor in the nearest country.

If you don't have a copy of AMA and would like to know whom to submit, contact e-mail

EDITORIAL

Last year, Japan has recorded a drastic decline of the country’s population by nearly 240 thousand. This is the largest number of decrease in population in a year ever recorded in Japan. What is worse, more than 30% of the population are elderly people aging more than 60 years.

Today, Japan imports almost all of the feeds for animals, and many other agricultural products. Regarding forestry, since the liberation of forest products trade in 1960’s, tons of low cost wooden materials came from abroad, as a result Japanese forest industry suffered a severe damage. Tragically, the average age of laborers to support the Japanese forestry today is over the age of 76 years.

About half of the mountain forests in Japan areartificial and left untouched. More than 80% of them need to be thinned, but left to become worthless in near future. The root of trees won’t grow well due to the high plantation density, therefore after any disasters such as Typhoon strikes, landslide will occur. Even if there are forests on the mountains, their roots are too weak to hold the earth and cannot prevent it from moving.

Japan tried to integrate agriculture and forestry to make a sustainable new industry. As a result, mountainous area agriculture has been established and sustained for a long time. Sadly, as the forest industry collapsed, mountain villages started to disappear and in a matter of course, mountain agriculture is being abandoned.

To meet the demand of 120 million people in Japan, more than 60% of food in calorie base is imported from abroad. This is causing hunger in many regions outside of Japan. What’s more, by looking at a global picture, population is growing vigorously, while the farmlands are decreasing in size. There is a critical issue as to how we can manage to produce enough food for this increasing population around the world.

To save the earth from food crisis, agricultural mechanization is in a definite need, especially in developing countries. As the population continues to grow, we need to work more on precision agriculture.

Milk and grains are sold at a much cheaper price than water; as a result young people are not motivated toward agricultural work. The aging of farmers is a problem which can occur in any country. The authorities should rethink their agricultural policies and creating a balance approach in trading between agricultural products and industrial products.

Human beings today are living their lives by exploiting forest and earth, and the limit is coming just around the corner.

The developments of agricultural mechanization and communication do raise the land productivity, but there is also a new technology to lend a helping hand. It is information technology( IT). We need improved technological knowledge to work for agricultural sector, but today, many of us can easily get the highly technological information through internet. Every farmer who has a personal computer or a smart phone can access the latest available technology related to their interest. IT is one of the key factor for the bright future of agriculture. Agricultural robots or an automation technology in agriculture shall be called informatization. It is our task how to utilize the development of IT for agricultural mechanization. We should be more active to promote global activities concerning agricultural mechanization and IT.

April, 2013

Chief Editor

Yoshisuke Kishida

e-mail