Glossary

A pension fund is a pool of assets set up by a company, union, government entity, or other organization to provide pensions to the fund contributors at retirement age. Many pension funds, because of their sheer size, are actively investing in markets and hence are major shareholders in several companies. Since the amount of capital is huge, pension funds exert considerable influence on the stock market as institutional investors. Some pension funds employ their own fund managers. Others delegate responsibility to external fund managers. Fund managers try to achieve a diversified portfolio of investments, with some in low-risk and others in high-risk areas.

PDCA stands for “plan, do, check, and act.” The PDCA cycle is a checklist of the four stages one must go through to get from “problem faced” to “problem solved.” The four stages are carried out in the cycle illustrated below. The concept of the PDCA cycle was originally developed by Walter Shewhart, the pioneering statistician who developed statistical process control in Bell Laboratories in the USA during the 1930s. It is often referred to as “the Shewhart cycle0”. It was promoted very effectively from the 1950s on by the famous quality management authority, W. Edwards Deming and is consequently known by many as the Deming cycle or Deming wheel. The following is a description of PDCA:

Plan: Determine the root cause of the problem and then plan a change or a test aimed at improvement.

Do: Carry out the change or the test, preferably on a pilot or small scale.

Check: Check to see if the desired result was achieved, what or if anything went wrong, and what was learned.

Act: Adopt the change if the desired result was achieved. If the result was not as desired, repeat the cycle using knowledge obtained from the previous cycle.

Although this is a continuous cycle, one needs to start somewhere. As a problem-solving process one would normally start at the check stage to identify what the requirements are and reality is. The gap between reality and requirements determines whether it is necessary to act. To use this as a problem-solving technique, a process must already be in place which can then be modified.

The term participatory irrigation management (PIM) refers to the participation of irrigation users, i.e., farmers, in the management of irrigation systems not merely at the tertiary level of management but spanning the entire system. Participation should not be construed as consultation alone. The concept of PIM refers to management by irrigation users at all levels of the system and in all aspects of management. This is the simplicity and flexibility of PIM. There can be different forms of participation at different levels in the system with varying degrees of accountability and responsibility. Management by irrigation users, rather than by a government agency, is often the best solution. Contrary to the traditional concept that irrigation management requires a strong public-sector role, the PIM approach starts with the assumption that the irrigation users themselves are best suited to manage their own water.

Outsourcing is a business practice that involves the transfer of an organizational function (often noncore activities) to a third party. When this third party is located in another country, the term offshore outsourcing may be used. Today many organizations are outsourcing largely due to the benefits it offers, such as lower labor costs or cheaper foreign currencies. Outsourcing enables companies to develop competitive strategies that will leverage their financial positions in the global marketplace. Outsourcing is also successful in increasing product quality or lowering firm and consumer costs. Since outsourcing enables lower costs, even if quality decreases slightly, productivity increases, which benefits the economy in aggregate.

Organic farming involves holistic production management systems (for crops and livestock) emphasizing the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs such as agrochemicals. This is accomplished by using, where possible, cultural, biological, and mechanical methods in preference to synthetic materials. Environment-friendly approaches/strategies such as integrated pest management, integrated plant nutrient management, and integrated production systems can be used to pursue organic farming. Organic farming is meant to produce organic food/agricultural products for better human health with minimum impact on the environment. The certification of organic products can be a challenge, especially for less developed countries.
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See also: Nature farming; Natural farming