Land development and large scale food production in East Africa by the overseas food corporation

1952 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Bunting
2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-350
Author(s):  
Divas Karimanzira ◽  
Thomas Rauschenbach

Abstract Population rise, climate change, soil degradation, water scarcity, and food security require efficient and sustainable food production. Aquaponics is a highly efficient way of farming and is becoming increasingly popular. However, large scale aquaponics still lack stability, standardization and proof of economical profitability. The EU-INAPRO project helps to overcome these limitations by introducing digitization, enhanced technology, and developing standardized modular scalable solutions and demonstrating the viability of large aquaponics. INAPRO is based on an innovation a double water recirculation system (DRAPS), one for fish, and the other one for crops. In DRAPS, optimum conditions can be set up individually for fish and crops to increase productivity of both. Moreover, the integration of digital technologies and data management in the aquaculture production and processing systems will enable full traceability and transparency in the processes, increasing consumers’ trust in aquaculture products. In this paper, the innovations and the digitization approach will be introduced and explained and the key benefits of the system will be emphasized.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bishnu Dulal ◽  
Gary Mundy ◽  
Rojee Sawal ◽  
Pooja Pandey Rana ◽  
Kenda Cunningham

Background: Suaahara, a large-scale integrated program, aimed to improve diets and nutritional status among women and children, in part by facilitating enhanced homestead food production (EHFP). Objective: This study examines associations between EHFP and maternal and child dietary diversity and variations by season and agroecological zone (AEZ): mountains and terai. Methods: We used data from household monitoring surveys (n = 2101 mothers; n = 994 children, 6-23 months), which included a 7-day dietary recall and maternal report on participation in 5 EHFP activities—received vegetable seeds, chicks, and technical support and participated in training and EHFP groups. We constructed binary variables for each activity and a scale (0-5) summing participation. For dietary diversity, we used the Women’s Dietary Diversity Score using 10 food groups and 7 food groups for child diets. Multivariable linear regression analyses were used to assess associations between EHFP participation and dietary diversity by season and AEZ, controlling for potential confounders and clustering. Results: In adjusted models, we found positive associations between dietary diversity and chicks, technical support, and EHFP beneficiary groups; the magnitude of the associations varied by season and AEZ. The degree of participation in 5 EHFP activities was positively associated with maternal dietary diversity in the terai (β = .24, P < .001) and mountains (β = .12, P = .01) and child dietary diversity in the terai (β = .35, P < .001) during the winter. No associations were found in the rainy season. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the potential for EHFP to address dietary diversity constraints among this population. Variation by subnational setting and seasonality suggest that policies and programs should be contextualized.


Author(s):  
Christopher Cammies ◽  
David Mytton ◽  
Rosemary Crichton

AbstractAquaponics is a food production system which connects recirculating aquaculture (fish) to hydroponics (plants) systems. Although aquaponics has the potential to improve soil conditions by reducing erosion and nutrient loss and has been shown to reduce food production related carbon emissions by up to 73%, few commercial aquaponics projects in the EU and UK have been successful. Key barriers to commercial success are insufficient initial investment, an uncertain and complex regulatory environment, and the lack of projects operating on a large scale able to demonstrate profitability. In this paper, we use the UK as a case study to discuss the legal and economic barriers to the success of commercial aquaponics in the EU. We also propose three policies: (1) making aquaponics eligible for the new system of Environmental Land Management grants; (2) making aquaponics eligible for organic certification; and (3) clarifying and streamlining the aquaponics licence application process. The UK’s departure from the EU presents a unique opportunity to review agricultural regulations and subsidies, which in turn could provide evidence that similar reforms are needed in the EU.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somdip Dey ◽  
Suman Saha ◽  
Amit Singh ◽  
Klaus D. Mcdonald-Maier

<div><div><div><p>Food safety is an important issue in today’s world. Traditional agri-food production system doesn’t offer easy traceability of the produce at any point of the supply chain, and hence, during a food-borne outbreak, it is very difficult to sift through food production data to track produce and origin of the outbreak. In recent years, blockchain based food production system has resolved this challenge, however, none of the proposed methodologies makes the food production data easily accessible, traceable and verifiable by consumers or producers using mobile/edge devices. In this paper, we propose FoodSQRBlock (Food Safety Quick Response Block), a blockchain technology based framework, which digitizes the food production information, and makes it easily accessible, traceable and verifiable by the consumers and producers by using QR codes. We also propose a large scale integration of FoodSQRBlock in the cloud to show the feasibility and scalability of the framework, and experimental evaluation to prove that.</p></div></div></div>


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 324-333
Author(s):  
Annamária Polgár ◽  
Erzsébet Mák

For centuries, men were self-reliant and consumed typically the food produced on one’s own territory. With advancing Industrial Revolution, development started also in the agriculture and food production set on a large scale, with cheap mass products and companies could serve larger populations. Metropolitan life has adapted to cater to the growing crowds, with smaller stores slowly becoming supermarkets where everything could be found in the same place. Innovation efforts have also brought about the freezer, vacuum packaging or microwave, all of which made available to the public. Foods changed to be enriched with vitamins and minerals for a better nutrient supply, and packaging techniques followed this evolution. This study aims to look over the history of alimentation and the change of food production from the 1900s to the 1950s324including both World Wars respectively.


Author(s):  
Irina GRIGORE ◽  
Severin CAZANESCU ◽  
Raluca Alexandra CAZANESCU

In our days, communities have to face high level of water and food consumption based on uncertain supplies and growing demands. Thus, they work to prevent floods, soil erosion, to supply fresh water for population, industry and irrigation and to redirect streams and rivers in order to increase the food production. On the other hand, climate changes increased the frequency of extreme events like droughts and floods, and water management became a matter of great concern, in order to protect and preserve fertile land and drinkable water resources. Powerful software are needed to help environmental specialists to develop reliable projects for sustainable land development, in a short time. In the present paper, we will briefly present AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010, the most powerful software application released by Autodesk Inc., a short time ago. Using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 components together with new set of extensions, named Hydraflow Extension, land development specialists can deal with a large variety of hydrologic and hydraulic aspects, such as delineating watersheds and drainage areas and computing time of concentration and other rainfall-runoff relationship for the designated basins.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Doelman ◽  
Tom Kram ◽  
Benjamin Bodirsky ◽  
Isabelle Weindle ◽  
Elke Stehfest

&lt;p&gt;The human population has substantially grown and become wealthier over the last decades. These developments have led to major increases in the use of key natural resources such as food, energy and water causing increased pressure on the environment throughout the world. As these trends are projected to continue into the foreseeable future, a crucial question is how the provision of resources as well as the quality of the environment can be managed sustainably.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Environmental quality and resource provision are intricately linked. For example, food production depends on availability of water, land suitable for agriculture, and favourable climatic circumstances. In turn, food production causes climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, and affects biodiversity through conversion of natural vegetation to agriculture and through the effects of excessive fertilizer and use of pesticides. There are many examples of the complex interlinkages between different production systems and environmental issues. To handle this complexity the nexus concept has been introduced which recognizes that different sectors are inherently interconnected and must be investigated in an integrated, holistic manner.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Until now, the nexus literature predominantly exists of local studies or qualitative descriptions. This study present the first qualitative, multi-model nexus study at the global scale, based on scenarios simultaneously developed with the MAgPIE land use model and the IMAGE integrated assessment model. The goal is to quantify synergies and trade-offs between different sectors of the water-land-energy-food-climate nexus in the context of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Each scenario is designed to substantially improve one of the nexus sectors water, land, energy, food or climate. A number of indicators that capture important aspects of both the nexus sectors and related SDGs is selected to assess whether these scenarios provide synergies or trade-offs with other nexus sectors, and to quantify the effects. Additionally a scenario is developed that aims to optimize policy action across nexus sectors providing an example of a holistic approach that achieves multiple sustainable development goals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results of this study highlight many synergies and trade-offs. For example, an important trade-off exists between climate change policy and food security targets: large-scale implementation of bio-energy and afforestation to achieve stringent climate targets negatively impacts food security. An interesting synergy exists between the food, water and climate sectors: promoting healthy diets reduces water use, improves water quality and increases the uptake of carbon by forests.&lt;/p&gt;


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (15) ◽  
pp. 5815-5833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghassan J. Alaka ◽  
Eric D. Maloney

The West African monsoon (WAM) and its landmark features, which include African easterly waves (AEWs) and the African easterly jet (AEJ), exhibit significant intraseasonal variability in boreal summer. However, the degree to which this variability is modulated by external large-scale phenomena, such as the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO), remains unclear. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is employed to diagnose the importance of the MJO and other external influences for the intraseasonal variability of the WAM and associated AEW energetics by removing 30–90-day signals from initial and lateral boundary conditions in sensitivity tests. The WAM produces similar intraseasonal variability in the absence of external influences, indicating that the MJO is not critical to produce WAM variability. In control and sensitivity experiments, AEW precursor signals are similar near the AEJ entrance in East Africa. For example, an eastward extension of the AEJ increases barotropic and baroclinic energy conversions in East Africa prior to a 30–90-day maximum of perturbation kinetic energy in West Africa. The WAM appears to prefer a faster oscillation when MJO forcing is removed, suggesting that the MJO may serve as a pacemaker for intraseasonal oscillations in the WAM. WRF results show that eastward propagating intraseasonal signals (e.g., Kelvin wave fronts) are responsible for this pacing, while the role of westward propagating intraseasonal signals (e.g., MJO-induced Rossby waves) appears to be limited. Mean state biases across the simulations complicate the interpretation of results.


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