scholarly journals A polycentric food sovereignty approach to climate resilience in the Philippines

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber Heckelman ◽  
M. Jahi Chappell ◽  
Hannah Wittman

Enhancing climate resilience in agrarian communities requires improving the underlying socioecological conditions for farmers to engage in adaptation and mitigation strategies, alongside collaborative and redistributive community development to reduce vulnerabilities. To overcome barriers to climate resilience in the Philippines, a grassroots farmer-led organization comprised of resource-poor smallholders, scientists, and nongovernmental organizations have organized a polycentric network over the past 30 years to implement food sovereignty initiatives. We explore the extent to which the network’s decentralized and farmer-led organizational structure; programming and services; promotion of diversified, organic, and agroecological farming systems; and political organizing and advocacy create broadly accessible and diverse pathways for resource-poor smallholders to build climate resilience. We find that the Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-Unlad ng Agrikultura’s (Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development) polycentric governance approach directly addresses the root causes of vulnerability, particularly in working to reclaim farmer rights and control over resources, connecting local and global struggles, and revitalizing agrobiodiversity and place-based knowledge.

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Rast ◽  
S. Nampanya ◽  
J.-A. L. M. L. Toribio ◽  
S. Khounsy ◽  
P. A. Windsor

High prevalence of Fasciola spp. infection in smallholder large ruminant farming systems has been confirmed in many regions of South-East Asia, yet information on trematode knowledge and any control practices of large ruminant farmers is lacking. We surveyed smallholder farmers (n = 326) in northern Laos on knowledge of liver fluke and its management in their large ruminants, identifying 93.1% of farmers had no knowledge and 6.9% minimal knowledge of the parasite and impacts on large ruminant production. The survey further confirmed anecdotal reports that control or prevention measures were lacking, with none of the surveyed producers using effective anthelminthic treatments or grazing strategies to control Fasciola spp. This was despite 20.6% of farmers having reported observing leaf-shaped parasites in the liver of their cattle or buffalo when slaughtered in the past. With increasing demand for red meat in the region, subsistence smallholder farmers are able to supply this market and increase their income. Athough the production impact of fascioliasis in large ruminants in these farming systems still needs to be quantified, farmer knowledge and control of fascioliasis in this region is likely to increase livestock productivity and improve rural livelihoods. This would help to address regional rural poverty and food insecurity, but requires improved knowledge to address the identified knowledge and practice gaps on presence, impact and control of fasciolosis. The majority (95.4%) of surveyed farmers indicated a desire to learn more about fascioliasis in large ruminants, suggesting that extension methods used in the past need adapting to result in more effective knowledge transfer and changed practices in future.


1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Bartley

This paper discusses the need for nationally based analytical models of the medieval period. The use of cluster analysis as a method for classifying demesne farms, by the crops they grew and their livestock management, is explained. Successful implementation of cluster analysis requires both the existence of a large base sample, to permit isolation of specific groupings within the data, and access to considerable processing time. The paper concludes by demonstrating how discriminant analysis can provide an efficient and systematic way of classifying even a single manor within a national frame of reference.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaolei Zhan ◽  
Younes Makoudi ◽  
Judicael Jeannoutot ◽  
Simon Lamare ◽  
Michel Féron ◽  
...  

Over the past decade, on-surface fabrication of organic nanostructures has been widely investigated for the development of molecular electronic devices, nanomachines, and new materials. Here, we introduce a new strategy to obtain alkyl oligomers in a controlled manner using on-surface radical oligomerisations that are triggered by the electrons/holes between the sample surface and the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope. The resulting radical-mediated mechanism is substantiated by a detailed theoretical study. This electron transfer event only occurs when <i>V</i><sub>s</sub> < -3 V or <i>V</i><sub>s</sub> > + 3 V and allows access to reactive radical species under exceptionally mild conditions. This transfer can effectively ‘switch on’ a sequence leading to formation of oligomers of defined size distribution due to the on-surface confinement of reactive species. Our approach enables new ways to initiate and control radical oligomerisations with tunnelling electrons, leading to molecularly precise nanofabrication.


Author(s):  
Nicole Curato

Misery rarely features in conversations about democracy. And yet, in the past decades, global audiences are increasingly confronted with spectacles of human pain. The world is more stressed, worried, and sad today than we have ever seen it, a Gallup poll finds. Does democracy stand a chance in a time of widespread suffering? Drawing on three years of field research among communities affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, this book offers ethnographic portraits of how collective suffering, trauma, and dispossession enlivens democratic action. It argues that emotional forms of communication create publics that assert voice and visibility at a time when attention is the scarcest resource, whilst also creating hierarchies of misery among suffering communities. Democracy in a Time of Misery investigates the ethical and political value of democracy in the most trying of times and reimagines how the virtues of deliberative practice can be valued in the context of widespread suffering.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1127
Author(s):  
Alison Small ◽  
Andrew David Fisher ◽  
Caroline Lee ◽  
Ian Colditz

Increasing societal and customer pressure to provide animals with ‘a life worth living’ continues to apply pressure on livestock production industries to alleviate pain associated with husbandry practices, injury and illness. Over the past 15–20 years, there has been considerable research effort to understand and develop mitigation strategies for painful husbandry procedures in sheep, leading to the successful launch of analgesic approaches specific to sheep in a number of countries. However, even with multi-modal approaches to analgesia, using both local anaesthetic and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), pain is not obliterated, and the challenge of pain mitigation and phasing out of painful husbandry practices remains. It is timely to review and reflect on progress to date in order to strategically focus on the most important challenges, and the avenues which offer the greatest potential to be incorporated into industry practice in a process of continuous improvement. A structured, systematic literature search was carried out, incorporating peer-reviewed scientific literature in the period 2000–2019. An enormous volume of research is underway, testament to the fact that we have not solved the pain and analgesia challenge for any species, including our own. This review has highlighted a number of potential areas for further research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwang-il Kim ◽  
Eunjeong Ji ◽  
Jung-yeon Choi ◽  
Sun-wook Kim ◽  
Soyeon Ahn ◽  
...  

AbstractWe analyzed the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) database to determine the trends of hypertension treatment and control rate in Korea over the past 10 years. In addition, we tried to investigate the effect of chronic medical conditions on hypertension management. We investigated the hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control rate from 2008 to 2017. KNHANES, which uses a stratified multistage sampling design, is a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey conducted by the Korean government. A total of 59,282 adults (≥ 20 years) were included, which was representative of the total population of around 40 million Koreans per year. The mean age was 50.7 ± 16.4 years and 42.6% were male. The prevalence of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, and obesity significantly increased over the 10 years. During this period, the hypertension treatment and control rate significantly improved. Hypertension treatment rate was significantly lower in the younger age group compared to the older age group, but the control rate among the treated patients was not significantly different between age groups. The treatment and control rates of hypertension were higher in patients with multimorbidity, which implies that it has a favorable effect on the treatment and control of hypertension. Hypertension treatment and control rate have improved over the past 10 years. The higher treatment and control rate in patients with multimorbidity suggest that the more aggressive surveillance might be associated with the improvement of hypertension treatment and control rate in Korea.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6861
Author(s):  
Xiya Liang ◽  
Pengfei Li ◽  
Juanle Wang ◽  
Faith Ka Shun Chan ◽  
Chuluun Togtokh ◽  
...  

Mongolia is a globally crucial region that has been suffering from land desertification. However, current understanding on Mongolia’s desertification is limited, constraining the desertification control and sustainable development in Mongolia and even other parts of the world. This paper studied spatiotemporal patterns, driving factors, mitigation strategies, and research methods of desertification in Mongolia through an extensive review of literature. Results showed that: (i) remote sensing monitoring of desertification in Mongolia has been subject to a relatively low spatial resolution and considerable time delay, and thus high-resolution and timely data are needed to perform a more precise and timely study; (ii) the contribution of desertification impacting factors has not been quantitatively assessed, and a decoupling analysis is desirable to quantify the contribution of factors in different regions of Mongolia; (iii) existing desertification prevention measures should be strengthened in the future. In particular, the relationship between grassland changes and husbandry development needs to be considered during the development of desertification prevention measures; (iv) the multi-method study (particularly interdisciplinary approaches) and desertification model development should be enhanced to facilitate an in-depth desertification research in Mongolia. This study provides a useful reference for desertification research and control in Mongolia and other regions of the world.


2021 ◽  
pp. 100048
Author(s):  
Decibel V. Faustino-Eslava ◽  
Hidetoshi Shibuya ◽  
Carla B. Dimalanta ◽  
Graciano P. Yumul ◽  
Jonathan T. Macuroy

Author(s):  
Marianna Fenzi ◽  
Paul Rogé ◽  
Angel Cruz-Estrada ◽  
John Tuxill ◽  
Devra Jarvis

AbstractLocal seed systems remain the fundamental source of seeds for many crops in developing countries. Climate resilience for small holder farmers continues to depend largely on locally available seeds of traditional crop varieties. High rainfall events can have as significant an impact on crop production as increased temperatures and drought. This article analyzes the dynamics of maize diversity over 3 years in a farming community of Yucatán state, Mexico, where elevated levels of precipitation forced farmers in 2012 to reduce maize diversity in their plots. We study how farmers maintained their agroecosystem resilience through seed networks, examining the drivers influencing maize diversity and seed provisioning in the year preceding and following the 2012 climatic disturbance (2011–2013). We found that, under these challenging circumstances, farmers focused their efforts on their most reliable landraces, disregarding hybrids. We show that farmers were able to recover and restore the diversity usually cultivated in the community in the year following the critical climate event. The maize dynamic assessed in this study demonstrates the importance of community level conservation of crop diversity. Understanding farmer management strategies of agrobiodiversity, especially during a challenging climatic period, is necessary to promote a more tailored response to climate change in traditional farming systems.


Algorithms ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 174
Author(s):  
Wenxiao Zhao

The stochastic approximation algorithm (SAA), starting from the pioneer work by Robbins and Monro in 1950s, has been successfully applied in systems and control, statistics, machine learning, and so forth. In this paper, we will review the development of SAA in China, to be specific, the stochastic approximation algorithm with expanding truncations (SAAWET) developed by Han-Fu Chen and his colleagues during the past 35 years. We first review the historical development for the centralized algorithm including the probabilistic method (PM) and the ordinary differential equation (ODE) method for SAA and the trajectory-subsequence method for SAAWET. Then, we will give an application example of SAAWET to the recursive principal component analysis. We will also introduce the recent progress on SAAWET in a networked and distributed setting, named the distributed SAAWET (DSAAWET).


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