scholarly journals Sustainable Intensification Practices Reduce Food Deficit for the Best- and Worst-Off Households in Ethiopia and Mozambique

2022 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Lynn Wilkus ◽  
Peter deVoil ◽  
Paswel Marenya ◽  
Sieg Snapp ◽  
John Dixon ◽  
...  

An adequate food supply is widely recognized as a necessary condition for social development as well as a basic human right. Food deficits are especially common among semi-subsistence farming households in eastern and southern Africa and farm productivity is widely regarded as the locus for enhancing household food outcomes. However, knowledge gaps surrounding benefits associated with climate smart, productivity-enhancing technologies require attention. This study evaluates benefits associated with sustainable intensification farm management practices (crop residue retention, minimum tillage, manure application and use of herbicides, pesticides, fertilizer, and improved seeds) for household calorie and protein supplies and demonstrates their scope across households with high-, moderate- and low- likelihoods of calorie and protein deficits. Household-level calorie and protein deficits were estimated from survey data on food production, acquisition and consumption for households in Ethiopia and Mozambique. Multinomial logistic models were used to identify drivers of household food deficit status and logistic model trees established “rules of thumb” to classify households by food deficit status as low, moderate or high likelihood. In Ethiopia, especially wet seasons were associated with a high likelihood of a food deficit while especially dry seasons were associated with a high likelihood of food deficit in Mozambique. The practices associated with sustainable intensification and related technologies substantially enhanced food outcomes in groups with a high- and a low-likelihood of food deficit, and associated benefits were high for the best-off households. Benefits associated with sustainable intensification technologies were not observed for households with a moderate likelihood of a food deficit and some technologies even increased risk. The sustainable intensification practices assessed here were associated with improved food outcomes yet benefits were limited in scope for households of intermediate status. Thus, there is a need to expand the technical options available to reduce food deficit.

Author(s):  
Kelly Cosgrove ◽  
Maricarmen Vizcaino ◽  
Christopher Wharton

Food waste contributes to adverse environmental and economic outcomes, and substantial food waste occurs at the household level in the US. This study explored perceived household food waste changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and related factors. A total of 946 survey responses from primary household food purchasers were analyzed. Demographic, COVID-19-related household change, and household food waste data were collected in October 2020. Wilcoxon signed-rank was used to assess differences in perceived food waste. A hierarchical binomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine whether COVID-19-related lifestyle disruptions and food-related behavior changes increased the likelihood of household food waste. A binomial logistic regression was conducted to explore the contribution of different food groups to the likelihood of increased food waste. Perceived food waste, assessed as the estimated percent of food wasted, decreased significantly during the pandemic (z = −7.47, p < 0.001). Food stockpiling was identified as a predictor of increased overall food waste during the pandemic, and wasting fresh vegetables and frozen foods increased the odds of increased food waste. The results indicate the need to provide education and resources related to food stockpiling and the management of specific food groups during periods of disruption to reduce food waste.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5445
Author(s):  
Muyun Sun ◽  
Jigan Wang ◽  
Ting Wen

Creativity is the key to obtaining and maintaining competitiveness of modern organizations, and it has attracted much attention from academic circles and management practices. Shared leadership is believed to effectively influence team output. However, research on the impact of individual creativity is still in its infancy. This study adopts the qualitative comparative analysis method, taking 1584 individuals as the research objects, underpinned by a questionnaire-based survey. It investigates the influence of the team’s shared leadership network elements and organizational environmental factors on the individual creativity. We have found that there are six combination of conditions of shared leadership and organizational environmental factors constituting sufficient combination of conditions to increase or decrease individual creativity. Moreover, we have noticed that the low network density of shared leadership is a sufficient and necessary condition of reducing individual creativity. Our results also provide management suggestions for practical activities during the team management.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Penti Suryani ◽  
Ahmad Darmawi

This study aims to determine 1) the condition of household food security, 2) the factors that affect the capacity of women farmers in food consumption in order to achieve food security at the household level, 3) the factors that affect spending foodstuffs on the level households and 4) the capacity of women farmers to achieve household food security in the era of globalization in the city of Pekanbaru. This study uses a cross-sectional study design, located in four districts in the city of Pekanbaru namely District Tampan, District Marpoyan Damai, District and Sub-district Rumbai and Rumbai Pesisir. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire which was distributed to 100 respondents of women farmers selected by simple random sampling. Factors that affect the capacity of women farmers in achieving food security household level are: income, education and nutrition knowledge of women farmers. Factors that affect spending foodstuffs at the household level women farmers in the city of Pekanbaru is the price of rice, household income, number of household members and the level of education. Capacity of women farmers in food processing is still at the low level. Threats of globalization on food security in Pekanbaru city can be resolved by the farmer community empowerment program. Empowerment of women farmers not only to protect the rice trade, but also to uplift the lives of women farmers through programs that improve local agricultural businesses


Food Security ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cascade Tuholske ◽  
Kwaw Andam ◽  
Jordan Blekking ◽  
Tom Evans ◽  
Kelly Caylor

AbstractThe urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to expand by nearly 800 million people in the next 30 years. How this rapid urban transition is affecting household-level urban food security, and reverberating into broader food systems, is poorly understood. To fill this gap, we use data from a 2017 survey (n = 668) of low- and middle-income residents of Accra, Ghana, to characterize and compare the predictors of household-level food security using three established metrics: the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS); the Household Food Insecurity Access Prevalence (HFIAP); and the Food Consumption Score (FCS). According to HFIAP, 70% of sampled households are food insecure, but only 2% fall below acceptable thresholds measured by FCS. Only one household reported sourcing food from modern supermarkets and fewer than 3% produce food for consumption through gardening, farming, or fishing. Instead, households rely on purchased food from traditional markets, local stalls and kiosks, and street hawkers. Results from a suite of general linear models show that household assets, education, and demographic characteristics are significantly associated with food security outcomes according to HFIAS and HFIAP. The poor correlation and weak model agreement between dietary recall such as FCS, and experience-based food security metrics, like HFIAS and HFIAP, highlight limitations of employing historically rural-centric food security measurement approaches within the urban context. Given that Sub-Saharan Africa’s future is urban, our results add empirical evidence in support of the growing chorus of scholars advocating for comprehensive urban-oriented food security research and policy agendas across Sub-Saharan Africa.


Author(s):  
Xiaogang He ◽  
Shell Shortes

As a third-generation nuclear power plant design, construction of the Westinghouse AP1000 incorporates the characteristics of modular construction and the “Open-Top” lifting method, which results in many kinds of lifting operations, whose potential failure creates increased risk to key equipment and construction personnel. Lifting by its very nature is high risk. Based on traditional safety management practices utilized at the project, lift operation characteristics were analyzed, and procedures and processes developed to manage the risk. These developed aspects included: lifting operation procedures; a construction scheme review/approval process; work planning/risk mitigation; equipment inspections; personnel certification requirements; training; crew management; special inspections; lessons learned utilization; discipline management; emergency management; and safety culture development. The authors believe that the safety management approaches discussed in this paper can provide guidance in conducting safe lift operations in other nuclear power plant projects.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Burtscher ◽  
Taher Kahil ◽  
Mikhail Smilovic ◽  
Diana Luna ◽  
Jenan Irshaid ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Food security has long been a challenge for East Africa region and is becoming a pressing issue for the coming decades because food demand is expected to increase considerably following rapid population and income growth. Agricultural production in the region is thus required to intensify, in a sustainable way, to keep up with food demand. However, many challenges face the sustainable intensification of the agricultural production including low productivity, inadequate management, small scale operations, and large climate variability. Several pilot initiatives, that involves a bundle of land and water management practices, have been introduced in the region to tackle such challenges. However, their large-scale implementation remains limited. In the framework of a research project which is jointly implemented by the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA), the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) and the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), we analyse up scaling opportunities for water and land management practices for the sustainable and resilient intensification of rice and fodder production systems in the extended Lake Victoria Basin in East Africa. The expected outcome of this project is to provide an improved understanding of up scaling of such practices through model simulations and integrated analysis of political economy aspects, governance and social and gender dimensions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This paper presents an integrated upscaling modeling framework that combines biophysical suitability analysis and economic optimization. Several production system options (i.e., management practices) for rice intensification are examined at high-spatial resolution (0.5&amp;#176;x0.5&amp;#176;) in the extended Lake Victoria basin. The suitability analysis identifies suitable area for the production system options based on a combination of various biophysical factors such as climate, hydrology, vegetation and soil properties using the Global Agroecological Zones (GAEZ) model and the Community Water Model (CWaTM). The economic optimization identifies the optimal combination of those production systems that maximizes their overall contribution to agricultural economic benefits having satisfied various technical and resource constraints including commodity balance, land availability and suitability, water availability, labor availability and capital constraints. A set of socioeconomic (e.g., impact of population and income growth on food demand and agricultural productivity) and climate change (e.g., impact on water resources availability) scenarios based on combinations of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), and co-developed bottom-up policy scenarios, through stakeholders&amp;#8217; engagement with the Basin Commission (LVBC), have been utilized to simulate the modeling framework. Results of this study show the existence of significant opportunities for the sustainable intensification of rice production in East Africa. Moreover, the study identifies the key biophysical and economic factors that could enable the upscaling of sustainable land and water management practices for rice production in the region. Overall, this study demonstrates the capacity of the proposed upscaling modeling framework as a system approach to address the linkages between the intensification of agricultural production and the sustainable use of natural resources.&lt;/p&gt;


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwafolahan O Sholeye ◽  
Victor J Animasahun ◽  
Albert A Salako ◽  
Bankole K Oyewole

Background: Household food insecurity has been associated with increased risk of transmission of HIV infection and poor treatment outcomes. This study therefore determined the prevalence of household food insecurity and its associated factors among people living with HIV in Sagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among 244 adult clients accessing care and support at the teaching hospital in Sagamu, Nigeria, selected via systematic sampling. Data was collected with the aid of a semi-structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS 21.0. Relevant descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated. Informed consent was obtained and strict confidentiality was ensured. Results: The mean age of respondents was 38.8 ± 9.2 years; 84% of respondents were female; 69.3% were married, 12.9% had lost their partners. About 12% spent more than three-quarters of the household income on food. The prevalence of household food insecurity was 71.7%. Food insecurity was associated ( p < 0.05) with educational status; occupation; type of housing; availability of toilet facilities; benefiting from food assistance; delaying drugs to prevent hunger; skipping drugs; vegetable consumption pattern; and exchanging sex for food. Conclusion: The prevalence of household food insecurity in this study was high. Living conditions were significantly associated with food insecurity. Socio-economic conditions need to be improved, to optimize the health and food security status of people living with HIV in Sagamu.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pipi Diansari ◽  
Teruaki Nanseki

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to investigate the socioeconomic impact on perceived household food security in the North Luwu District of South Sulawesi Province in the eastern part of Indonesia. In Indonesia, 87 million people are presently vulnerable to food insecurity. Thus, the United Nations Development Programme’s primary millennium development goal for Indonesia is to halve the number of people who suffer from hunger by 2015. It is clear that food security at the household level is crucial to achieving this target. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 371 household heads were interviewed. The households’ perceptions of their food security status were captured by asking the household head the following question: “How do you perceive your household’s food security status during the last month”? Respondents could select from the following options: insecure, somewhat insecure, somewhat secure, secure and highly secure. Here, the household head’s answer is regarded as the household’s subjective food security status (SFSS). We then applied descriptive analysis and an ordered logit model to determine the socioeconomic factors that influence SFSS. Findings – As expected, in both analyses, household income and formal level of education have a strong relationship to SFSS. However, this study finds that food nutrition knowledge also shows a significant role in enhancing the probability that household SFSS will be in a better food security category. This could be a breakthrough in improving household food security status given the lack of formal education. Practical implications – Neighborhood resource-based food preparation counseling programs are essential. Existing food programs for Indonesian households should be reoriented and incorporated into the non-formal educational curriculum and should be carried out at the family level or in small groups to ensure that the message of the program is delivered effectively. In the short term, for non-farm households, the government should provide targeted households with crash programs such as revolving funds for household-level business activities. For farm households, ensuring that farming infrastructures, facilities and technologies are adequate and affordable is crucial to sustaining their production process. Originality/value – This is the first study to investigate the perceptions of household heads on their food security status in Indonesia. Most prior studies on household food security in Indonesia were conducted in response to Indonesia’s 1997 economic crisis and focused predominantly on Java, in the western part of Indonesia; there is little existing research on the eastern part of Indonesia. Moreover, this study is the first to emphasize the significant role of food nutrition knowledge in increasing the probability of household heads’ perceptions on their food security status being in a better category.


2001 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
pp. 613-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. H. McKenzie ◽  
A. B. Middleton ◽  
M. Zhang

Direct seeding of winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) has rapidly become an accepted practice in the Chinook region of the southwestern Canadian prairies. Continuously cropped Chernozemic soils are frequently N deficient. To determine best N fertilizer management practices, we examined conventional versus direct seeding to establish winter wheat and to determine the effects of banded and seed-placed N fertilizer treatments in the fall versus broadcast N in the s pring. The research was conducted using two experiments. The first experiment compared band placement of N fertilizer in soil that was conventionally cultivated and seeded, to direct seeding with seed placement of fertilizer using 10% and 50% seedbed utilizations. The second experiment determined optimal time of N application (i.e., fall/spring split vs. spring only) for direct seeded winter wheat. Direct seeding proved to be successful for germination and emergence of winter wheat and was either as good as or superior to conventionally tilled and seeded treatments. Nitrogen fertilizer was successfully applied in the fall without increased risk of winterkill and application at the time of seeding was generally equal or superior to spring broadcast N. Based on these results, producers could either apply all N fertilizer at the time of seeding or use a split application strategy by applying a portion of N in the fall, and in the spring apply the remaining N required, based on soil test N and spring soil moist re conditions. Key Words: Winter wheat, ammonium nitrate, urea, nitrogen fertilizer placement, direct seeding, conventional seeding


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document