Resource frontiers and agglomeration economies: The varied logics of transnational land-based investing in Southern and Eastern Africa

AbstractActor-level data on large-scale commercial agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa are scarce. The peculiar choice of transnational investing in African land has, therefore, been subject to conjecture. Addressing this gap, we reconstructed the underlying logics of investment location choices in a Bayesian network, using firm- and actor-level interview and spatial data from 37 transnational agriculture and forestry investments across 121 sites in Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. We distinguish four investment locations across gradients of resource frontiers and agglomeration economies to derive the preferred locations of different investors with varied skillsets and market reach (i.e., track record). In contrast to newcomers, investors with extensive track records are more likely to expand the land use frontier, but they are also likely to survive the high transaction costs of the pre-commercial frontier. We highlight key comparative advantages of Southern and Eastern African frontiers and map the most probable categories of investment locations.

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A Comparison of Feature Density for Large Scale Online Maps

Cartographic Perspectives ◽

10.14714/cp97.1707 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michael P. Peterson

Keyword(s):

Spatial Data ◽

Large Scale ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Google Maps ◽

Local Environments ◽

Online Maps ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Label Density ◽

Source Of Information

Large scale maps as provided by Google, Microsoft Bing, and Mapbox among others provide users an important source of information for local environments. Comparing maps from these services helps to evaluate both the quality of the underlying spatial data and the rendering process. A comparison procedure is used that generates large scale map pairs at random locations using the Application Programmer Interface (API) for three different mapping services. The quality of each representation is then evaluated for feature and label density. The comparison is done for three different continents. For North America, it was found that maps from Google had consistently higher feature and label density than those from Microsoft Bing and Mapbox. Google Maps also held an advantage in Europe. Maps from Microsoft Bing were more detailed in Sub-Saharan Africa in comparison to both Google Maps and Mapbox. Maps from Mapbox, that relies exclusively on data from OpenStreetMap, had the lowest feature and label density for all three areas.

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Precision Agriculture for Resource Use Efficiency in Smallholder Farming Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13031158 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1158

Author(s):

Cecilia M. Onyango ◽

Justine M. Nyaga ◽

Johanna Wetterlind ◽

Mats Söderström ◽

Kristin Piikki

Keyword(s):

Resource Use ◽

Precision Agriculture ◽

Large Scale ◽

English Language ◽

Management Practices ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Smallholder Farming ◽

Sub Saharan

Opportunities exist for adoption of precision agriculture technologies in all parts of the world. The form of precision agriculture may vary from region to region depending on technologies available, knowledge levels and mindsets. The current review examined research articles in the English language on precision agriculture practices for increased productivity among smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 7715 articles were retrieved and after screening 128 were reviewed. The results indicate that a number of precision agriculture technologies have been tested under SSA conditions and show promising results. The most promising precision agriculture technologies identified were the use of soil and plant sensors for nutrient and water management, as well as use of satellite imagery, GIS and crop-soil simulation models for site-specific management. These technologies have been shown to be crucial in attainment of appropriate management strategies in terms of efficiency and effectiveness of resource use in SSA. These technologies are important in supporting sustainable agricultural development. Most of these technologies are, however, at the experimental stage, with only South Africa having applied them mainly in large-scale commercial farms. It is concluded that increased precision in input and management practices among SSA smallholder farmers can significantly improve productivity even without extra use of inputs.

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Intraclass Correlation Coefficients for Designing Cluster-Randomized Trials in Sub-Saharan Africa Education

Evaluation Review ◽

10.1177/0193841x16660246 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 40 (6) ◽

pp. 500-525 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Ben Kelcey ◽

Zuchao Shen ◽

Jessaca Spybrook

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Randomized Trials ◽

Intraclass Correlation ◽

Educational Interventions ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Design Stage ◽

Education Outcomes ◽

Randomized Studies ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Variance Explained

Objective: Over the past two decades, the lack of reliable empirical evidence concerning the effectiveness of educational interventions has motivated a new wave of research in education in sub-Saharan Africa (and across most of the world) that focuses on impact evaluation through rigorous research designs such as experiments. Often these experiments draw on the random assignment of entire clusters, such as schools, to accommodate the multilevel structure of schooling and the theory of action underlying many school-based interventions. Planning effective and efficient school randomized studies, however, requires plausible values of the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the variance explained by covariates during the design stage. The purpose of this study was to improve the planning of two-level school-randomized studies in sub-Saharan Africa by providing empirical estimates of the ICC and the variance explained by covariates for education outcomes in 15 countries. Method: Our investigation drew on large-scale representative samples of sixth-grade students in 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and includes over 60,000 students across 2,500 schools. We examined two core education outcomes: standardized achievement in reading and mathematics. We estimated a series of two-level hierarchical linear models with students nested within schools to inform the design of two-level school-randomized trials. Results: The analyses suggested that outcomes were substantially clustered within schools but that the magnitude of the clustering varied considerably across countries. Similarly, the results indicated that covariance adjustment generally reduced clustering but that the prognostic value of such adjustment varied across countries.

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Africa and the wider world: creole communities in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

Tempo ◽

10.1590/tem-1980-542x2017v230303 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 465-481

Author(s):

Malyn Newitt

Keyword(s):

Technology Transfer ◽

Indian Ocean ◽

World Economy ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Eastern Africa ◽

Cultural Appropriation ◽

The World ◽

African Slaves ◽

The Indian Ocean ◽

Sub Saharan

Abstract: Portuguese creoles were instrumental in bringing sub-Saharan Africa into the intercontinental systems of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. In the Atlantic Islands a distinctive creole culture emerged, made up of Christian emigrants from Portugal, Jewish exiles and African slaves. These creole polities offered a base for coastal traders and became politically influential in Africa - in Angola creating their own mainland state. Connecting the African interior with the world economy was largely on African terms and the lack of technology transfer meant that the economic gap between Africa and the rest of the world inexorably widened. African slaves in Latin America adapted to a society already creolised, often through adroit forms of cultural appropriation and synthesis. In eastern Africa Portuguese worked within existing creolised Islamic networks but the passage of their Indiamen through the Atlantic created close links between the Indian Ocean and Atlantic commercial systems.

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Land conflicts and social differentiation in eastern Uganda

The Journal of Modern African Studies ◽

10.1017/s0022278x1700026x ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 395-422 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Matt Kandel

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Local Level ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Social Differentiation ◽

Land Conflicts ◽

Current Period ◽

Post Conflict ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Historical Developments ◽

Eastern Uganda

ABSTRACTRising competition and conflict over land in rural sub-Saharan Africa continues to attract the attention of researchers. Recent work has especially focused on land governance, post-conflict restructuring of tenure relations, and large-scale land acquisitions. A less researched topic as of late, though one deserving of greater consideration, pertains to how social differentiation on the local-level shapes relations to land, and how these processes are rooted in specific historical developments. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Teso sub-region of eastern Uganda, this paper analyses three specific land conflicts and situates them within a broad historical trajectory. I show how each dispute illuminates changes in class relations in Teso since the early 1990s. I argue that this current period of socioeconomic transformation, which includes the formation of a more clearly defined sub-regional middle class and elite, constitutes the most prominent period of social differentiation in Teso since the early 20th century.

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Governing large-scale farmland investments in sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and ways forward

10.17528/cifor/004560 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Schoneveld G.C.

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Sub Saharan

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The seasonality of cholera in sub-Saharan Africa

10.1101/2021.11.23.21265642 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Javier Perez-Saez ◽

Justin Lessler ◽

Elizabeth C. Lee ◽

Francisco J. Luquero ◽

Espoir B. Malembaka ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Task Force ◽

Case Fatality ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Health Concern ◽

National Differences ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Eastern And Southern Africa ◽

Positive Correlations ◽

Gates Foundation

Background Cholera remains a major threat in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where some of the highest case fatality risks are reported. Knowing in what months and where cholera tends to occur across the continent can aid in improving efforts to eliminate cholera as a public health concern; though largely due to lack of unified large-scale datasets, no continent-wide estimates exist. In this study we aim to estimate cholera seasonality across SSA. Methods We leverage the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) global cholera database with statistical models to synthesize data across spatial and temporal scale in order to infer the seasonality of excess suspected cholera occurrence in SSA. We developed a Bayesian statistical model to infer the monthly risk of excess cholera at the first and/or second administrative levels. Seasonality patterns were then grouped into spatial clusters. Finally, we studied the association between seasonality estimates and hydro-climatic variables. Findings The majority of studied countries (24/34) have seasonal patterns in excess cholera, corresponding to approximately 85% of the SSA population. Most countries (19/24) also had sub-national differences in seasonality patterns, with strong differences in seasonality strength between regions. Seasonality patterns clustered into two macro-regions (West Africa and the Sahel vs. Eastern and Southern Africa), which were composed of sub-regional clusters with varying degrees of seasonality. Exploratory association analysis found most consistent and positive correlations between cholera seasonality and precipitation, and to a lesser extent with temperature and flooding. Interpretation Widespread cholera seasonality in SSA offers opportunities for intervention planning. Further studies are needed to study the association between cholera and climate. Funding The NASA Applied Sciences Program and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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HIV/AIDS

Oxford Textbook of Medicine ◽

10.1093/med/9780198746690.003.0098 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 901-933

Author(s):

Sarah Fidler ◽

Timothy E.A. Peto ◽

Philip Goulder ◽

Christopher P. Conlon

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

People Living With Hiv ◽

African Countries ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

The People ◽

Reduce Life Expectancy ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Living With Hiv ◽

The Impact

Since its discovery in 1983, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been associated with a global pandemic that has affected more than 78 million people and caused more than 39 million deaths. Globally, 36.9 million (34.3–41.4 million) people were living with HIV at the end of 2013. An estimated 0.8% of adults aged 15–49 years worldwide are living with HIV, although the burden of the epidemic continues to vary considerably between countries and regions. Sub-Saharan Africa remains most severely affected, with nearly 1 in every 20 adults living with HIV and accounting for nearly 71% of the people living with HIV worldwide. The impact of HIV in some African countries has been sufficient to reverse population growth and reduce life expectancy into the mid-30s, although HIV incidence has declined in some of these high-prevalence countries. However, there are large-scale HIV epidemics elsewhere (e.g. India, the Russian Federation, and Eastern Europe).

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The Determinants of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A Case Study

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture8120194 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 194 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Chiara Mazzocchi ◽

Michele Salvan ◽

Luigi Orsi ◽

Guido Sali

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Land Policy ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Land Acquisitions ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

Investment Process ◽

Agricultural Investments ◽

Formal Recognition

The determinants of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) are, in most cases, outside the traditional sales–buying land market, as they are often rented lands for long periods of time or exploitation licenses. Sub-Saharan Africa is among the most affected regions by this phenomenon for reasons related to its land policy, and includes 37% of the total LSLAs cases. The paper develops an econometric model based on a logarithmic OLS regression to identify the determinants of LSLAs in sub-Saharan Africa. As suggested by the literature, this analysis poses the total agricultural area acquired by country as dependent variable. Results show that investors prefer a country offering a sufficiently free trade economic context with a good level of agricultural productivity, thus allowing an easy investment process. Moreover, a country with a formal recognition of land rights is preferred, to have guarantees on their investment. The availability of water is also one of the main LSLAs drivers, as a natural limit of agricultural investments.

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