12 research outputs found
National Wool Growers Association programme for communal farmers in Amahlathi local Municipality
No full textBy 2030, the majority of the world's population will live in urban areas and the farming populations we see today will be less. For the foreseeable future, meeting the needs of the future means confronting the problems that small farmers face in their daily struggle. The South African experience in relation to the agricultural sector is still principally dualistic, comprising of the large-scale commercial farming dominated by white farmers as well as small-scale sectors dominated by black farmers and this is distinctive in the local context of writings on agricultural and rural development. As a result, the government has adopted various approaches to promote Transformation in the sector, with mixed results. The well-known are the agricultural development programmes and black farmer empowerment programmes which also include land reform. This paper reviews one of the agricultural development programmes which seek to empower small holder farmers. The study assesses the impact of the National Wool Growers Association (NWGA) Wool Programme on the communal farmers productivity and agricultural income in Amahlathi Local Municipality. The NWGA has been the custodian for transformation and it has been a good vehicle to represent all wool producers in South Africa. The research discovered that the programme has a positive influence on productivity and agricultural income, yet there is a room for improvement both for the NWGA and the government. It was highlighted that the programme offers extension services, infrastructure for shearing shed, wool and carcass competition, shearing training to both shearers and wool farmers. The study also found that women and youth need to be included, in the programme
Rethinking North–South Research Partnerships Amidst Global Uncertainties: Leveraging Lessons Learned from UK GCRF Projects during COVID-19
No full textInternational research and development projects (or grand challenge projects) consist of multicultural, multi-country, multi-sectoral, and multi-stakeholder initiatives aimed at poverty reduction. They are usually conceived as partnerships between actors in the global north–south. The COVID-19 pandemic was a major unexpected disruption to ongoing projects and challenged their already complex management. The aim of this paper is to present evidence on how international development projects were impacted by COVID-19 with a particular focus on the relationship between research institutions in the north and south. We conducted a mixed-methods research study, combining a reflective exercise with the co-author team and a survey with principal investigators, project managers, and capacity development leads drawn from 31 Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) projects funded through the UK government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) and focused on social–ecological system research. The survey contained closed- and open-ended questions in order to (i) demonstrate how those involved in managing projects adapted to risks, including both threats and opportunities, presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, and (ii) consider the implications for tailoring adaptive management approaches in international research projects amidst uncertainties, with a special focus on enhancing equities in global north–south partnerships. The paper offers the following recommendations on designing, planning, and implementing international research and development projects: (i) devolve project management in order to enhance project resilience and improve north–south equities; (ii) allocate dedicated resources to enable equitable north–south research partnerships; (iii) rely more on hybrid and agile approaches for managing a project’s life cycle; and (iv) improve resource flexibility, transparency, and communication through enhanced funder–implementer collaboration
« The Hasanlu Gold ‘Bowl’. A View from Transcaucasia », in : N. F. Miller & K. Abdi, eds., Yeki Bud, Yeki Nabud. Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner. Monograph Series 48, Los Angeles, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, pp. 237-241.
No full textThe author compares the iconography of the Hasanlu gold bowl with a silver piece recovered within a kurgan at Karashamb in Armenia. She then proceeds in explaining the shared imagery. One possibility is a Hurrian connection. It is tentatively suggested that both the Hasanlu bowl and the Karashamb goblet ‘derived from the same cultural milieu in which the Hurrians also participated’
Stakeholder-driven transformative adaptation is needed for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa - author correction
No full textImproving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and
nutrition security simultaneously. Here we use an integrated assessment framework (iFEED) to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. iFEED translates climate–food–emissions
modelling into policy-relevant information using model output implication statements. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often
associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required
Stakeholder-driven transformative adaptation is needed for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa.
No full textImproving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security simultaneously. Here we use an integrated assessment framework (iFEED) to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. iFEED translates climate-food-emissions modelling into policy-relevant information using model output implication statements. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required. [Abstract copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).
The nature and role of the Arabic plural morpheme "-at" in persian
No full text1.Introduction The Persian language, though not belonging to the family of Semitic languages, has borrowed the heaviest from the Arabic language (Farshidvard: 1879: 39). A brief examination of Persian shows how heavily Persian is indebted to Arabic, but, as some scholars have pointed out, this has occurred mostly in the lexicon area as Persian has been affected very little in terms of syntax or grammar (Majd, 2011: 39). In addition to a great number of single lexical items, a number of grammatical morphemes have entered Persian. An example is the agreement of adjective and the noun it modifies in grammar in terms of gender, a characteristic which is peculiar to Arabic, and which was not common in the Dari Persian except in the sixth century AH, when Persian was heavily affected by Arabic. The first instance appeared in Aruzi’s Chahar Maghaleh. Examples include: Moluk-e Maziyeh and Ghoroon Khaliyeh, etc. (Farshidvard, 1989: 23). Another instance of Arabic influence is the wide-spread adoption and usage of Arabic plural-making morphemes. 2.Methodology In Persian, the Arabic morpheme «-at» is sometimes used to pluralize Arabic and Persian words. Many Persian authorities frown upon this usage and argue that even Arabic words entering Persian should, as far as possible, also be pluralized using the plural morphemes «-ha» and «-in». Examples: Sokhanran enteghadhay-e (rather than enteghadat-e) ziyadi az chegoonegi-ye bargozariy-e marasem kard.[The lecturer made several criticisms of the way the ceremony was held]. However, a number of the Arabic plural forms have been established in Persian with certain words so much so that if the plural morphemes are changed the words sound unfamiliar and weird. Examples include: ettelaa’aat; emkaanaat, enteshaaraat, etc. Besides, for certain nouns ending in «-at» such as adabiyaat, dokhaniyaat, amaliyaat, labaniyaat and maliyaat, there is no single form in Persian. The question to ask here is whether the Arabic plural marker «-at» in Persian has the same morphological, semantic, pragmatic and grammatical function as its counterpart in Arabic. Or is it different while sharing certain characteristics? 3.Discussion: Contrary to what was initially believed that languages borrow just words from one another, the studies show that borrowing can occur in any part of language including phonemes, inflectional and derivational affixes, etc. However, borrowing words is more frequent than borrowing any other parts of the language. Although affixes can be borrowed, the common belief is that they are not directly borrowed but transferred indirectly from one language into another language. In other words, affixes, as part of the complex words, get transferred into another language. Theses affixes, as the borrowed words, can finally attach to the roots of the target language and produce hybrid words (Seifar, et.al, 2015). Recently, borrowing affixes have received remarkable attention and the focus in the published works has been on the way affixes are borrowed. There are two scenarios, direct and indirect, for the process of borrowing affixes (Winford, 2005:385-409). The indirect borrowing has two stages. In the first stage, the speaker borrows some complex words from another language and uses them. In the second stage, probably a lot later, the speaker parses the blended words and finally the affixes are used with the roots in the receiving language and get generated. In the second scenario, the direct borrowing, once the borrowing takes place, the speaker, drawing on his own knowledge of the source language, identifies the affixes and attaches them to the roots of his own language and uses them. The main difference between these two scenarios lies in the whereabouts of the borrowed affix. Where has the speaker received the affix before combining it with the roots of his own language? From the source language complex words (indirect borrowing) or from his own knowledge of the source language? (direct borrowing). It seems that the indirect scenario best describes the phenomenon of affix borrowing. Paul (1891) maintains that words are borrowed as a whole; that is, derivative and inflectional affixes are not borrowed alone on their own part. However, if the many words that get transferred into another language have one certain affix, they can develop as easy as the target language words as a group and are possible to generate on their own. Thus, the received affix, by way of analogy, can attach to the target roots and later get generated (Paul, 1891: 469-470). 4.Conclusion One of the cases where Persian has been influenced by Arabic is the borrowing of Arabic plural morphemes including «-at». The plural morpheme entered Persian with certain Arabic plural nouns such as latamaat, majhoolat and mofradaat, but was later extended to pluralize originally Persian words such as baaghaat, gozareshaat and Shemiranaat, resulting in hybrid words. In terms of Phonetics, «-at» is no different in Persian than its usage in Arabic, but in terms of phonology, the only difference is in cases where «-at» has entered Persian directly as part of a loan word. A case in point is the loan word latamaat. In terms of phonology, «-at» follows Persian rather than Arabic phonological rules. For example, the Persian words are pluralized as ghazaliyaat and kashfiyaat while the plural forms of their Arabic counterparts are ghazaliyeh and kashfiyeh respectively. Also, the Persian word pand is pluralized as pandiyaat, quite against Arabic morphological rules. The plural marker «-at» is used for feminine nouns, whereas Persian lacks the feminine-masculine distinction. «-at» is not used in Persian to pluralize humans and animates and inanimate nouns are gender-neutral. In fact, «-at» is used in Persian to pluralize inanimate and abstract nouns that are gender-free. In terms of meaning, «-at» in Arabic indicates plural (three and more), whereas in Persian it indicates kind and group. Even though there are cases in Persian where this plural marker indicates plurality, this plurality meaning is mixed with the meanings of kind and group. This plural morpheme has undergone change in meaning and function, so that it is also clearly assumed a classifying function. Thus, we may speak of two types of «-at» one Arabic and one Persianized. The Arabic «-at» is the plural marker for feminine nouns, and the Persianized «-at» is the plural marker referring to groups. By group is meant a collection of things of various names but of the same nature. For example, shemiranat indicates a number of villages that are located in the same geographical area even though they have various names. Other examples include lavaasaanaat, noghaat as well as dahaat, baghaat and dastooraat. In fact. It may be said that this borrowed morpheme has assumed a merely morphological-grammatical function. Grammatical because it shows in some way the addition of a foreign plural-making element to the number of Persian plural-making markers. Morphological because it has assumed a derivative function in the word formation area. Also, it seems that in Persian, «Jat» is considered as a single morpheme and that sabzijaat no longer means sabzihaa; rather, various kinds of sabzi. On the other hand, words such as kompootjaat indicate the fact that what we do have here is not «-at», but «-Jat», which may be regarded as a form of the morpheme «-at».The question of the use of «-at» in Persian is a matter of debate. Generally, it is not approved as it is argued that the use of Persian plural markers is preferable. At first glance, this advice may seem warranted, specially because Persia has quite a lot of plural markers. A close look shows, however, that «-at» though originally Arabic has undergone such a deep change that it is not to be counted as Arabic any more as it is used based on Persian and not Arabic rules. Also, its usage has productively increased. Thus, we may claim with certainty that the single morpheme «-at» is a plural marker that Persian has borrowed indirectly from Arabic and that it is now a plural morpheme belonging to the Persian Language. Keywords :Mikhail Naima, Kan Makan, Jamalzadeh, yeki bud yeki nabud, Adaptive literature. *Date received: 29/11/2019 Date accepted: 20/07/2020 1 PhD student in Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, AllamehTabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran (Corresponding author) 2. Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, AllamehTabataba’i University,Tehran, Ira
Stakeholder-driven transformative adaptation is needed for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textAbstract Improving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security simultaneously. Here we use an integrated assessment framework (iFEED) to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. iFEED translates climate–food–emissions modelling into policy-relevant information using model output implication statements. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required
Stakeholder-driven transformative adaptation is needed for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textImproving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security simultaneously. Here we use an integrated assessment framework (iFEED) to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. iFEED translates climate–food–emissions modelling into policy-relevant information using model output implication statements. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required
A new integrated assessment framework for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa: the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED)
No full textClimate change will put millions more people in Africa at risk of food and nutrition insecurity by 2050. Integrated assessments of food systems tend to be limited by either heavy reliance on models or a lack of information on food and nutrition security.
Accordingly, we developed a novel integrated assessment framework that combines models with in-country knowledge and expert academic judgement to explore climate-smart and nutrition-secure food system futures: the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED). Here, we describe iFEED and present its application in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.
The iFEED process begins with a participatory scenario workshop. In-country stakeholders identify two key drivers of food system change, and from these, four possible scenarios are defined. These scenarios provide the underlying narratives of change to the food system. Integrated modelling of climate change, food production and greenhouse gas emissions is then used to explore nutrition security and climate-smart agriculture outcomes for each scenario. Model results are summarised using calibrated statements - quantitative statements of model outcomes and our confidence in them. These include statements about the way in which different trade futures interact with climate change and domestic production in determining nutrition security at the national level.
To understand what the model results mean for food systems, the calibrated statements are expanded upon using implication statements. The implications rely on input from a wide range of academic experts – including agro-ecologists and social scientists. A series of workshops are used to incorporate in-country expertise, identifying any gaps in knowledge and summarising information for country-level recommendations. iFEED stakeholder champions help throughout by providing in-country expertise and disseminating knowledge to policy makers.
iFEED has numerous novel aspects that can be used and developed in future work. It provides information to support evidence-based decisions for a climate-smart and nutrition-secure future. In particular, iFEED: i. employs novel and inclusive reporting of model results and associated in-country food system activities, with comprehensive reporting of uncertainty; ii. includes climate change mitigation alongside adaptation measures; and iii. quantifies future population-level nutrition security, as opposed to simply assessing future production and food security implications
A new integrated assessment framework for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa: the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED)
No full textClimate change will put millions more people in Africa at risk of food and nutrition insecurity by 2050. Integrated assessments of food systems tend to be limited by either heavy reliance on models or a lack of information on food and nutrition security. Accordingly, we developed a novel integrated assessment framework that combines models with in-country knowledge and expert academic judgement to explore climate-smart and nutrition-secure food system futures: the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED). Here, we describe iFEED and present its application in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The iFEED process begins with a participatory scenario workshop. In-country stakeholders identify two key drivers of food system change, and from these, four possible scenarios are defined. These scenarios provide the underlying narratives of change to the food system. Integrated modeling of climate change, food production and greenhouse gas emissions is then used to explore nutrition security and climate-smart agriculture outcomes for each scenario. Model results are summarized using calibrated statements—quantitative statements of model outcomes and our confidence in them. These include statements about the way in which different trade futures interact with climate change and domestic production in determining nutrition security at the national level. To understand what the model results mean for food systems, the calibrated statements are expanded upon using implication statements. The implications rely on input from a wide range of academic experts—including agro-ecologists and social scientists. A series of workshops are used to incorporate in-country expertise, identifying any gaps in knowledge and summarizing information for country-level recommendations. iFEED stakeholder champions help throughout by providing in-country expertise and disseminating knowledge to policy makers. iFEED has numerous novel aspects that can be used and developed in future work. It provides information to support evidence-based decisions for a climate-smart and nutrition-secure future. In particular, iFEED: (i) employs novel and inclusive reporting of model results and associated in-country food system activities, with comprehensive reporting of uncertainty; (ii) includes climate change mitigation alongside adaptation measures; and (iii) quantifies future population-level nutrition security, as opposed to simply assessing future production and food security implication
