Impact of Rapid Urbanization and Climate Change on Agricultural Productivity in Africa

Author(s):  
Mutisya Emmanuel ◽  
Lilian Muasa ◽  
Chiahsin Chen ◽  
Florence Mutisya ◽  
Ram Avtar

Africa continues to experience serious signs of multiple crises in the context of sustainability. These crises include vulnerability to climate change, rapid urbanization, food insecurity, and many others. One crisis, that defines Africa today, is the unprecedented rapid urbanization which continues to pose a big challenge to the diminishing available resources, environmental quality and human well-being. Cities in Africa continue to experience a fast horizontal growth of settlements due to influx of people from rural areas who often settle in the economically lowest segments in urban areas. This horizontal rapid growth has eaten up land set for agriculture around cities and promoted the rapid growth of informal settlements exacerbating the impacts of climate change leading to a negative impact on agricultural production. Policies linking rapid urbanization and climate change with agricultural productivity are need. This paper explores and documents the impact of rapid urbanization on climate change policies and subsequent impact on agriculture in Africa.

2017 ◽  
pp. 1121-1132
Author(s):  
Mutisya Emmanuel ◽  
Lilian Muasa ◽  
Chiahsin Chen ◽  
Florence Mutisya ◽  
Ram Avtar

Africa continues to experience serious signs of multiple crises in the context of sustainability. These crises include vulnerability to climate change, rapid urbanization, food insecurity, and many others. One crisis, that defines Africa today, is the unprecedented rapid urbanization which continues to pose a big challenge to the diminishing available resources, environmental quality and human well-being. Cities in Africa continue to experience a fast horizontal growth of settlements due to influx of people from rural areas who often settle in the economically lowest segments in urban areas. This horizontal rapid growth has eaten up land set for agriculture around cities and promoted the rapid growth of informal settlements exacerbating the impacts of climate change leading to a negative impact on agricultural production. Policies linking rapid urbanization and climate change with agricultural productivity are need. This paper explores and documents the impact of rapid urbanization on climate change policies and subsequent impact on agriculture in Africa.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florina Guadalupe Arredondo-Trapero ◽  
José Carlos Vázquez-Parra ◽  
Martín De Jesús González-Martínez

Purpose The aim of this study is to analyse teachers’ perceptions of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the effect they have on their students, comparing male and female teachers in rural and urban areas of Mexico. Design/methodology/approach This is a quantitative study with a validated questionnaire that records the perception of school teachers from a state in the northeast of Mexico. The questionnaire was designed by interviewing 20 teachers who have had problematic situations in the use of technology by students. The main problems that were perceived in their students were cyberbullying, cyberviolence, online pornography, excessive use of videogames and also lack of ability to use digital technology. Hypothesis testing was applied to identify differences between gender (female or male) and region (rural or urban), considering these problems and the efforts made by the school to address these issues. Findings Both the gender of the teaching staff and the region where the school is located are variables that are influencing the willingness to incorporate ICT issues that are affecting the well-being of students into the educational agenda. While teachers are the main actors in preparing their students on how to face these challenges, students in schools with mostly male teachers, or located in rural areas, will be in a situation of greater vulnerability to be victims of the problems that arise as part of ICT risks in a digital society Research limitations/implications This article only offers a first approach to ICT and teachers’ perceptions. It is necessary to broaden the scope of this type of research to include different educational contexts and to ask questions that reveal in greater detail how schools are dealing with ICT and its possible risks and the factors that have influenced the successes or failures they are having in these attempts. Practical implications This finding can help schools to promote programs focused to apply ICT for student flourishment and help them to deal with the risk that digital technology is generating in young students. Originality/value Although multiple research have been conducted to address teachers’ perception about diverse topics, there has been no specific research on the self-perception of teachers in dealing with technology and preparing students for the problems presented by ICT and its risks. This research contributes to the literature on the impact that teachers’ perceptions can have on the adoption of technology in education, and how this can be different by gender and region.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Avanish Bhai Patel

Purpose The incidents of elder victimisation and cases of victimisation, in general, are increasing fast in the society. These incidents have had negative impact on the sense of well-being and way of life of the older people. Therefore, fear of crime is being considered as a most concerning psycho-social problem amongst the older people in contemporary time. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of crime rate on the well-being of the older people and examine the linkage between psychological factors and fear of crime amongst the older people. Design/methodology/approach The present study is based on the mixed method approach and an exploratory research designed applied to conduct the study. The field survey has been done from October 2012 to January 2013 on a sample of 220 older people of rural and urban areas of Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh through purposive sampling. For the study, researcher has interviewed 137 male older people and 83 female older people through interview schedules and case studies. The data have been analysed through descriptive and narrative analysis. Findings The study finds that those older people have direct or indirect experience of victimisation, they have anxiety and feel insecurity that someone can victimise them. The study also finds that the happiness of older people is more affected due to anxiety and phobia and have higher level of feeling of fear of crime in their neighbourhood and home. The study also finds whenever anti-social elements are active in the neighbourhood and they commit crimes, fear of crime and anxiety grasp the older people to a large extent causing a fracture in their psychological well-being. Originality/value This work is the original work of researcher. This paper is related to the researcher’s PhD dissertation work. This paper talks about how the psychological well-being of older people affects due to nature of crime in neighbourhood, phobia of crime and anxiety due to criminal activities.


Author(s):  
Abraham Amenay Zewde ◽  
Zifu Li ◽  
Zhou Xiaoqin

Abstract The global challenges that face sustainable sanitation services in developing countries are the lack of fecal sludge management; this is due to the rapid urbanization and population growth as it generates enormous quantities of fecal sludge. The extensive use of unimproved sanitation technologies is one of the main reasons for environmental and public health concerns. In dispersed rural areas, isolated slums or in urban areas where a sewerage system is costly, decentralized wastewater system can be used. Therefore centralized management of decentralized wastewater systems along with proper institutional framework treatment of fecal sludge can be used to enhance the economies of developing counties from resource recovery. The discovery of new ways to inactivate pathogens contained in human waste is key in improving access to sanitation worldwide and reducing the impact of conventional waste management processes on the environment. The entire FS management system should include on-site sanitary treatment methods, collection, and transportation of FS, treatment facilities as well as resource recovery or disposal of the treated end products. This review paper addresses the hygienization of fecal sludge and improved treatment technologies for safe reuse or disposal of the end products and the significant economic revenues attained from the treatments of fecal sludge.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (03) ◽  
pp. 13-28
Author(s):  
Sabda Elisa Priyanto

The study will analyze the impact of tourism by the type of special interest tourism to the environment. Impact on the coast and islands, the impact on vegetation, the impact wildlife, and the impact on urban areas and rural areas. Positive impact on the coast and the island is the effort for preservation and conservation of coral reefs, reef fish, giant clams and turtles, and encouraged to make environmentallyfriendly tourism activities. The negative impact is a damage to coral reefs from snorkeling activities, and the loss of traditional land allotment to the beach. The positive impact on vegetation is their attempt to biodiversity and conservation of vegetation typical of Publications, and reforestation activities is to replant mangrove. Negative impacts on vegetation is illegal logging and the clearing of trees to increase tourist attraction as supporters of the main activities. commercialization of the plant for souvenirs. Positive impact on wildlife is their conservation, preservation, and biodiversity, the breeding of animals and relocating the animals to their natural habitat. The negative impact is going hunting animals as souvenirs and tourist consumption, harassment of wildlife photography, animal exploitation for pertujukan, changes in animal instincts, and the migration of animals. Positive impact on urban areas and rural areas is happening arrangement karimunjawa towns and villages, and their empowerment. The negative impact of pressure on the land for the opening of a new tourist attraction, there are exchange in the function of residential land into commercial land, and the occurrence of traffic congestion, noise pollution, air pollution, and pollution aesthetics.  Keywords: Environmental Impact, Tourism, Snorkeling


2014 ◽  
Vol 116 (6) ◽  
pp. 890-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Noelle Duquenne ◽  
George Vlontzos

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes on food consumption patterns of households, due to the ongoing economic crisis in Greece. Design/methodology/approach – A sample survey among a random sample of 932 households living in the region of Thessaly, central Greece, was carried out, with the consuming behaviour to be focused on 20 basic food products. An exploratory factor analysis, followed by a hierarchical classification of the households, was implemented. Findings – Six patterns of food consumption's behaviour have been detected, revealing that most of the households have modified their eating habits, by reducing the quantities consumed and/or looking for less expensive brands. Only 15 per cent of the households do not seem to be affected by the crisis and the austerity policy. The spatial dimension of the research signify that low-income households in urban areas, where the majority of the population lives, are deeply affected by the crisis, with these percentages to be even higher at semi-urban and rural areas. Originality/value – This is the first attempt of assessment of the impact of the economic crisis in Greece on food consumption pattern, verifying its significant negative impact on an inelastic need, such food consumption is.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 796-796
Author(s):  
Yazhen Yang ◽  
Maria Evandrou ◽  
Athina Vlachantoni

Abstract Research to-date has examined the impact of intergenerational support in terms of isolated types of support, or at one point in time, failing to provide strong evidence of the complex effect of support on older persons’ wellbeing. Using the Harmonised China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011, 2013 and 2015), this paper investigates the impact of older people’s living arrangements and intergenerational support provision/ receipt on their physical and psychological wellbeing, focusing on rural/ urban differences. The results show that receiving economic support from one’s adult children was a stronger predictor for higher life satisfaction among older rural residents compared to those in urban areas, while grandchild care provision was an important determinant for poor life satisfaction only for older urban residents. Receiving informal care from one’s adult children was associated with a poor (I)ADL functional status and with depressive symptoms among older rural people. Meanwhile, having weekly in-person and distant contact reduced the risk of depression among older people in both rural and urban areas. The paper shows that it is important to improve the level of public economic transfers and public social care towards vulnerable older people in rural areas, and more emphasis should be placed on improving the psychological well-being of urban older residents, such as with the early diagnosis of depression.


2021 ◽  
pp. 151-168
Author(s):  
T. ZWANE

Savings have been described as a significant fi nancial and economic matter and represent an essential driving force of economic growth and development. Despite this, many studies investigating the determinants of savings in South Africa have looked predominantly at the drivers of savings only at a national level, without focusing on urban and rural differences. This is critical as these localities are structurally different, with different characteristics. It is, therefore, likely that the determinants of savings in these unique geographical localities would differ, given the negative impact of past policies of marginalisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the urban-rural disparities in savings for South African households. We used data sourced from the five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) observed from 2008-2017. The novelty of this study is in its application of a novel two-stage least square estimation technique which addresses possible endogeneity problems which might have plagued previous studies in this field. It was concluded from the research that the determinants of savings are different across samples (urban and rural). We found that having access to land is an important predictor of savings in rural areas where the poor live (positive and significant), but the coefficient is not significant in the urban sample. Although there was a positive correlation between income and savings across samples, but the income impact on savings is higher in absolute values for households residing in rural areas, compared to household living in urban areas. We also found that, despite the coefficient of employment being similar in the direction of the impact (positive and significant) across the samples, the magnitude of the coefficient was stronger in the rural sample. Based on the higher magnitude of the coefficient, we found that household size has more effect in urban than rural areas. The study recommends that government should design and implement policies that foster job creation, even low-skilled jobs, which will generate more income and reduce unemployment.


2016 ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Cong Nguyen Van ◽  
Truc Tran Thi

In the context of an insufficient social protection system the economic lives of older people, especially those living in rural areas, are greatly changed with socio-economic risks that are associated with the strong rural-urban mobility of younger generations. This paper aims to investigate the impacts on the economic well-being of old-age parents of domestic remittances, sent by their children who have migrated from rural to urban areas. Using data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) in 2004, 2008 and 2012 with logistic regression models, we found that domestic remittances played an essential role in improving income/ expenditure per capita and reducing poverty rates of older people’s households. Domestic remittances also contributed to reduce Gini coefficients, which were calculated using both income and expenditure per capita.


Food Security ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdoul G. Sam ◽  
Babatunde O. Abidoye ◽  
Sihle Mashaba

Abstract The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and several studies suggest that climate change is expected to increase food insecurity and poverty in many parts of the world. In this paper, we adopt a microeconometric approach to empirically estimate the impact of climate change-induced hikes in cereal prices on household welfare in Swaziland (also Kingdom of Eswatini). We do so first by econometrically estimating expenditure and price elasticities of five food groups consumed by households in Swaziland using the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), based on data from the 2009/2010 Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Survey. Second, we use the estimated expenditure and compensated elasticities from the AIDS model, food shares from the household survey, and food price projections developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to estimate the proportionate increase in income required to maintain the level of household utility that would have prevailed absent an increase in food prices. Our results show increases in cereal prices due to climate change are expected to double extreme poverty in urban areas and increase poverty in rural areas of the country to staggering levels - between 71 and 75%, compared to 63% before the price changes. Income transfers of between 17.5 and 25.4% of pre-change expenditures are needed to avoid the welfare losses.


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